Metal FDM, a new extrusion-based additive manufacturing technology for manufacturing of metallic parts: a review

Recently, various additive manufacturing (AM) methods with a wide range of capabilities have been employed to produce metallic objects. Metals are a popular choice among AM materials due to their superior properties, despite being more challenging to print. Reduced product cost, the possibility for quick production and prototyping, and the capability of a produced component by high accuracy in a broad variety of shapes, geometrical complexity, size, and material are all advantages of metal AM technology. Metal fused deposition modeling (metal FDM) is a relatively new technique based on the widely used FDM process. It is a relatively low-cost competitor to other metal AM techniques such as selective laser melting (SLM). This review paper has explored the most recently issued publications in this extrusion-based metal additive manufacturing (EAM) technique. The main parameters in feedstock preparation, deposition and 3D printing, debinding, and sintering phases of the metal FDM process will be discussed and their influence on the mechanical and microstructural characteristics of the 3D-printed parts. Furthermore, the application of finite element modeling for metal FDM process analysis is explored. Finally, the challenges and gaps in the manufacturing of components and obtaining desired characteristics have been presented.