Investigations for obtaining desired strength of Nylon6 and Fe powder-based composite wire for FDM feedstock filament

Abstract

In the present work, an effort has been made for modelling the peak strength of Nylon6-Fe powder composite-based feedstock filament (wire) for fused deposition modelling (FDM) process. The developed filament has been used to prepare functional prototypes with ferromagnetic characteristics. The methodology involves the use of historical data approach of response surface methodology (RSM) to study the effect of input process parameters (namely: barrel temperature, die temperature, screw speed, speed of the winding machine of single screw extruder and melt flow index of composite material as rheological property) on peak strength of the filament developed. The model for prediction of peak strength of Nylon6-Fe powder composite filament has been counter verified by actual experimentation. Further, the results of the study also highlights that Nylon6-Fe composite-based FDM filament enabled successful run of this material without any change in hardware/software of the commercial FDM setup.