Ironing process influence on the warping of ABS parts produced by Fused Filament Fabrication

Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) applications are growing at an accelerated rate. As the impact of FFF in industries becomes more significant, accuracy and reliability of parts can compromise its adoption. Warping is a distortion where the surfaces of the printed part do not follow the intended shape of the design and is one of the most common problems when 3D printing with ABS material. In a previous work, ironing, a type of layer-by-layer heat treatment developed to reduce surface roughness, has been proposed as a potential solution to this problem. This work aims to determine the influence of ironing and related process parameters, in the warping of ABS parts. Results obtained suggest that applying the ironing technique within the first three layers of the specimen gives the most consistent warping reduction while minimizing secondary distortion effects. In conclusion, under specific conditions, ironing was successfully validated as a method to reduce warping in ABS parts produced by FFF.