Design for FDM/FFF

Direct Digital
Manufacturing.

Vijay Raghav Varada

Director & CEO Fracktal Works Pvt Ltd.

Additive Manufacturing

Technology that enables you to take a digital file and

turn it into a physical product.
Takes a digital file in a CAD format, slices it into layers
and deposits Molten material layer by layer using a 3
axis manipulator

Direct Digital Manufacturing(DDM)

Create Products without Tooling, Machining, or Molding.

There exists Freedom of Design

Design for manufacturability( DFM) rules are discarded.

INJECTION
MOLDING

DIRECT DIGITAL
MANUFACTURING

Draft angles must

be included in the
tool or parts wont
eject properly.

the part. You can even

have "negative (back)
draft" on a DDM

Uniform wall
thickness is required
in order to minimize
warpage and sink
marks.

No need for a draft on

part.
Wall thickness can
be varied throughout
a DDM part and
thick-wall to thin-wall
transitions cause no
problems.

Radiused (rounded)
corners are required
to reduce stress
concentrations and
improve plastic flow
during molding.
Radii are required
on most inside and
outside corners of a
molded part.

With DDM, you can

have sharp corners
wherever desirable

Since each material

has a specific shrink
rate, it may not be
feasible to change
materials once a
tool has been made.

With DDM you can

change your material
with each new build.

Design Considerations

Conserving support material

Ensuring feature strength
Reducing build time
Origin Plane

Wall Thickness's.

Fillets & Living Hinges

Reduce the stress during printing and strengthen the

part.
Living hinge example

Threads

avoid sharp edges and 90 degrees angles as they can

be stress concentrators in plastic parts.
ACME threads (as shown on the pictures) are found to
work well with FDM, so this is the recommended type.
Recommended minimum size of the thread is 0.8mm.
Small threads produced with FDM are not possible with
holes smaller than 3mm, also there are easier
alternatives.
Use tapping or a die to create internal/external threads.

Minimum column and pin

size

Take care of the pins and columns width size (as well as
other small features) of your parts, otherwise they may
come out brittle or not printable at all.

Small pins should not be less than 2mm in diameter if

you want an usable part.
Smaller sizes may print, but you should consider using
more suitable technology we provide - SLA

Holes

Holes on FDM machines are generally undersized as

result of many factors.
Easier to drill hole to get accuracy.
When tight tolerances are required, either the holes in
the model may be oversized or they may be drilled
later.
For holes up to 10mm in diameter you can add 2% to
4% correction and smaller for bigger diameters
Example: to get a 5mm hole it has to be designed with
5.2mm diameter.

Bosses and Ribs

Assemblies

Mating parts should have adequate tolerance between

them to prevent fusing
Should have tolerance of atleast slice height in Z

Extrusion width in X/Y

Fasteners and inserts

Minimizing Support

Tear Drop holes

Design in support material

Orient part appropriately.