Device for measuring part adhesion in FFF process

The adhesion of parts to the build surface plays a central role in the Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) process. Without sufficient adhesion, the part will deform (so called warping) due to thermal shrinkage, so that no defined geometries can be created. Nevertheless, there is no established method to measure the adhesion of printed parts and therefore it is not possible to targeted improve it. This article presents a measurement method based on the DIN EN 28510-1 standard and a corresponding test device which makes it possible to identify the optimum build surface for a filament and also to improve the process parameters in a targeted manner. The test device combines a FFF printer with a measuring unit so that all common filaments can be tested close to the process up to a processing temperature of 400 °C in the nozzle and around 150 °C on the build platform. The test device uses only open-source parts and software and costs about 1700€.