Creating metal parts by Fused Deposition Modeling and Sintering.

• FDMS is a much cheaper 3D printing method for metals. • Printing gaps in 'Green parts' are hard to eliminate. • Mechanical properties of FDMS metal parts are poorer than other processing methods. • FDMS metal parts are porosity and shrink during sintering process. Conventional metal 3D printings are generally high energy consuming and expensive. As an alternative, Fused Deposition Modeling and Sintering (FDMS) was proposed for fast making metal parts at low energy consumption and low cost. Metal/polymer composite filament is printed by the printer based on Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), and then debinding and sintering are conducted on the printed parts to form compact metal parts. Microstructural characteristics of the 316L/POM filament, printed parts and the final FDMS 316L parts are observed. Besides, the hardness, tensile properties, relative density, and part shrinkage were measured to understand the characteristics of the sintered FDMS 316L parts. Because the internal porosity and defects decrease the mechanical properties, the FDMS metal parts are suitable for applications without stringent requirements of strength, such as the functional products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]