The Full Form of FFF is Fused Filament Fabrication ,FFF is also known as fused deposition modeling (FDM). FDM was developed by S. Scott Crump in the late 1980s, and further developed and commercialized by Stratasys Ltd. in the 1990s. Indeed, FDM is a trademark of Stratasys Ltd. (the owners of MakerBot Industries). Since the majority of 3D printers use this process (the process is not trademarked, only the term FDM), we use FFF to avoid confusion with the Stratasys trademark.
The Working of FFF
When a 3D printer creates an object, the material used to print an object comes in filament form5 on a large spool to make it easier for the printer to draw material. The filament is then loaded into an extruder that has two parts: one to pull the filament off the spool and push it into a heating element, and another to heat the filament to its melting point.
The part that pulls the filament and feeds it to the heating element is called the cold end, whereas the heating element is called the hot end. In most cases, the extruder contains both parts in a single unit, but it is not uncommon to see these as two separate parts. Sometimes manufacturers refer to both parts as the extruder, but others distinguish the extruder from the hot end (but they sometimes don’t call it a cold end). Just one of the many nuances to 3D printing I hope to explain!If this sounds like nothing more than a fancy hot glue gun, you’re right! The process is very similar, but unlike the hot glue gun that relies on human power to pump glue sticks (however inaccurately) into the heating element, 3D printers use a computer-controlled electric motor called a stepper motor to precisely control how much and how fast the filament is fed to the hot end. Most extruders use a geared arrangement to allow the stepper motor to apply more torque to the filament to overcome forces such as the tension of the spool or the weight (and thickness) of the filament. The drawing shows a mock-up of the extruder and a spool of filament. As you can see, the filament is pulled into the extruder (cold end) and then pushed into the nozzle (hot end). Once heated, the filament is extruded onto a build plate (a very flat surface used as the base for the object). Typically, the outer edges of an object are printed first, then the interior edges are printed, and finally, the interior of the layer is printed as either a solid layer (for outer-most layers) or as a fill-in matrix for inner layers. Notice that the filament from the spool is much larger than the heated extrusion. This is because most nozzles (the small part where the filament exits the heater block) have a very small opening ranging from 0.3 millimeters (mm) to 0.5mm. Notice in the drawing I’ve exaggerated how the layer is built from multiple lines of heated filament. While grossly simplified, this is effectively how a 3D printer takes filament and builds a layer of the object. On the left is the bottom of the part. The part on the right shows what the default fill pattern and density look like. Notice that the edges are made from several passes of the extruder, but the interior is only partially filled. This not only saves filament but also ensures the part will have sufficient strength. Now that we understand how a 3D printer puts the filament together to form an object, let’s take a look at the software required for 3D printing. I will introduce the types of software needed and briefly discuss how they are used, and also provide a short demonstration of how to use the software to print an object. If you want to install the software, refer to the URLs listed for installation instructions.
