Recent Advance on Fused Deposition Modeling

Additive manufacturing (AM) technique is a prospective technique used in the production of complex geometries, which integrates design as well as manufacture. Fused deposition modeling (FDM), one implementation of AM, is widely used for manufacture in numerous fields. As a printing technology, FDM is very flexible and relatively inexpensive, thus becoming a leading and dominant pattern in AM field. The paper reviews various patents and their progresses on FDM in recent years, where new structures and new devices are adopted in aspects such as printer head and filament storage devices, support structures, support materials and auxiliary measures. New inventions of printer head and filament storage devices cover the storage devices of the filament, temperature control method of the printer head, protection mechanism and printer head structure for multi-filament supply. Support structures are demonstrated by the construction algorithm and removal devices, as well as support materials. Detection technology and other measures are mentioned in the part of auxiliary measures. Current and future developments are also discussed and forecasted at the end of the paper.