Investigating the influence of inter-printhead bond strategy on tensile strength in multi-printhead PLA parts for collective additive manufacturing

Multiple printheads working in parallel on the same part have been proposed to increase the speed of FDM additive manufacturing systems. However, it is still unclear how this implementation affects part performance, particularly whether optimal inter-printhead bonds can be realised and how these might impact proposed speed gains. Therefore, this study investigates the trade-offs in tensile performance of parts printed using multiple printheads and inter-printhead interface strategies compared to a single printhead. By evaluating various inter-printhead bond orientations and chunking angles at the inter-printhead interface, the research assesses whether introducing a seam, which may weaken the part, can be justified by the potential benefit of workload distribution to enable parallelism in FDM additive manufacturing systems, hence faster print times. Findings show that the inline inter-printhead bond orientation and 30◦ chunking angle specimens exhibit a 9% and < 1% reduction in ultimate tensile strength, respectively. Therefore, with optimal inter-printhead interface settings, multiple printheads can speed up FDM additive manufacturing systems with minimal impact on tensile performance.