ICAM 2026
We took part in ICAM 2026 – International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing, organized by ASTM International, held September 28 – October 2, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando, Florida (USA).
What we presented
We presented the poster "Minimizing Green-Part Defects in 316L Metal Fused Filament Fabrication (MFFF): A Taguchi-Based Optimization of Printing Parameters" (SESS-345) at the Student Research Showcase / Student Poster Competition.
Authors: Hugo David Flórez-Rodríguez, Juan Sebastián Suárez-Ramírez, Gabriel Blanco-Camacho, Julián Ramírez-Arango and Jonathan Camargo — Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universidad de los Andes.
Metal fused filament fabrication (MFFF) uses metal powder-filled filaments to make metal parts on conventional FFF printers. The printed green part is then debound and sintered, and its quality largely determines the quality of the final component. Optimizing printing parameters by evaluating sintered parts is slow and expensive, so we proposed doing it at the green stage. This work is part of the project 3D printing stainless steel with metal filament.
- Material and printing: 316L stainless steel filament (80–85 wt% powder in a PLA-based binder), printed on a Creality Hi with a 0.4 mm hardened steel nozzle.
- Design of experiments: Taguchi L18 orthogonal array with six factors at three levels: print speed, extrusion temperature, layer height, line width, extrusion factor and infill overlap. Results were analyzed with the smaller-the-better S/N ratio and ANOVA at 95 % confidence.
- Superficial Defect Index (Iabs): the top surface of each specimen was digitized with a flatbed scanner and processed in Python with OpenCV and scikit-image to measure the percentage of area showing defects such as voids, gaps or excess material.
Key results
- Extrusion factor was the dominant parameter (p = 0.020); defects were lowest at 1.06.
- Print speed was also significant (p = 0.043); the best surface came at 30 mm/s, which gives the highly filled material time to melt homogeneously and bond with adjacent strands.
- Layer height had a borderline effect (p = 0.063). Extrusion temperature, line width and overlap were not significant, indicating a robust process window for this feedstock.
- The run at maximum volumetric flow and minimum temperature failed by nozzle clogging, defining a non-viable operating window.
Combining a Taguchi design with a computer-vision defect index identifies the dominant parameters without debinding and sintering every run. Next, we will sinter parts printed at the optimal settings to correlate Iabs with final density and mechanical properties, and extend the method to other factors and feedstocks.
About the event
ICAM is ASTM International's advanced manufacturing conference. ASTM is one of the world's most recognized standards organizations for additive manufacturing, and ICAM brings together researchers, equipment makers, material developers, industrial users and standards bodies around additive manufacturing, materials, metrology and manufacturing processes.
For the lab it was a chance to share one of the first studies at Universidad de los Andes — and, as far as we know, in Colombia — on metal additive manufacturing by filament extrusion, a technology that is still rare in the country.
Outcomes and takeaways
Presenting at the Student Research Showcase let us discuss the methodology with metal additive manufacturing specialists, get technical feedback on the defect index, and learn about recent work on metal material extrusion, debinding and sintering. These conversations will guide the next experimental stages of this research line in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.