A decision support system for the selection of FDM process parameters using MOORA

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an automated process of fabricating three-dimensional (3D) physical objects from a 3D-CAD data by adding layers of materials one upon another through a print head or nozzle without using any tooling components or machining environments. Due to freedom in design, any complex shape can be produced using this process. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is one such AM technology that is commonly used for its simplicity, environment friendliness and low requirement for process monitoring. However, this technology is limited only to small-scale production due to high cost and high build time. The present work focuses on the development of a framework for parametric optimization of the FDM process using multi-objective optimization based on ratio analysis (MOORA). A CAD model of the cam follower mechanism has been prepared in the Solidworks platform and used in this experiment for optimization of build time and cost which have been considered as response variables of the experiment. The experiment has been conducted following the full factorial design of experiment (DoE) method.