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Stream/Area:
-
Subject:
-
Paper ID:
IJSREM68303
Volume:
10 |
10 |
Oct 2026
Pages:
1-6
Publication Frequency:
Monthly (12 issues per year)
License:International Journal of Scientific Research in Engineering and Management follows the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) License, allowing free use and distribution with proper attribution.
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Priyadarshini College of Engineering, Nagpur
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Priyadarshini College of Engineering, Nagpur
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Priyadarshini College of Engineering, Nagpur
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Priyadarshini College of Engineering, Nagpur
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Priyadarshini College of Engineering, Nagpur
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Priyadarshini College of Engineering, Nagpur
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Priyadarshini College of Engineering, Nagpur
The current study outlines the design, development, and experiment-based evaluation of a low-cost fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer intended for education and rapid prototyping applications. The printer comprises a Cartesian motion system, a mechanical frame, a filament extrusion mechanism, a heated build platform, and an Arduino Mega 2560-based control system equipped with RAMPS 1.4 electronics, A4988 stepper drivers, and Marlin firmware. Modeling and G-code generation were conducted with Bambu Studio. The developed prototype is 520 × 505 × 440 mm in size and allows to get a nominal build volume of 200 × 200 × 200 mm. Performance was estimated on the basis of five nominal 20 mm calibration cubes, filament feeding calibration, temperature measurements, visual evaluation of print quality, and printing time and material consumption measurement. The average measured dimensions of the calibration cubes are 19.96 mm, 19.98 mm, and 20.30 mm in the X, Y, and Z directions, correspondingly. Filament feeding at the commanded 50 mm resulted in 50.6 mm measured feed, which corresponds to the deviation of 1.2%. The measured temperature ranges were 55.30–55.59 °C for the heated bed and 200.19–219.21 °C for the hot end. Printing of the calibration cube took 78 minutes and required 3.43 g of PLA filament. Visual evaluation showed good bed adhesion and warping resistance of the print but also revealed some defects that require further calibration.
KEYWORDS
A cheap Cartesian FDM 3D printer has been developed, fabricated and tested experimentally for educational and rapid prototyping purposes. The resulting design provides a nominal build volume of 200 × 200 × 200 mm and features a control unit based on an Arduino Mega 2560, RAMPS 1.4 electronics, A4988 stepper motor drivers and the Marlin firmware. The dimensional calibration of five cubes nominally sized as 20 × 20 × 20 mm resulted in the following means of 19.96 mm, 19.98 mm and 20.30 mm along the X, Y and Z axes, respectively. The outcomes show lower mean dimensional errors on the X- and Y-axes and greater positive error on the Z-axis. As for the filament-feed calibration test, there was observed a feed value of 50.6 mm for the length command of 50 mm, thus the deviation was 1.2%. The results of temperature monitoring reveal a range of 0.29 °C for the heated bed and 19.02 °C for the hotend among available measurements. The surface examination revealed good bed adherence without major warping, although with stringing, voids and surface imperfections. This set of results sets an initial experimental baseline for the developed 3D printer performance. Future research needs to focus on axis calibration, consistency of extrusion and improving print quality. More calibration runs and documenting measurement uncertainty, temperature readings with timestamps, surface quality would provide a more thorough system testing.
[1] I. Gibson, D. Rosen, B. Stucker, and M. Khorasani, Additive Manufacturing Technologies, 3rd ed. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2021, doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-56127-7. [2] ISO/ASTM, ISO/ASTM 52900:2021: Additive Manufacturing—General Principles—Fundamentals and Vocabulary. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization, 2021. [3] Arduino, “Mega 2560 Rev3.” [Online]. Available: https://docs.arduino.cc/hardware/mega-2560. [Accessed: Oct. 22, 2026]. [4] RepRap, “RAMPS 1.4.” [Online]. Available: https://reprap.org/wiki/RAMPS_1.4. [Accessed: Oct. 22, 2026]. [5] Pololu, “A4988 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier.” [Online]. Available: https://www.pololu.com/category/120/a4988-stepper-motor-driver-carrier. [Accessed: Oct. 22, 2026]. [6] Marlin Firmware, “Configuring Marlin.” [Online]. Available: https://marlinfw.org/docs/configuration.html. [Accessed: Oct. 22, 2026]. [7] Marlin Firmware, “G0-G1: Linear Move.” [Online]. Available: https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G000-G001.html. [Accessed: Oct. 22, 2026]. [8] Bambu Lab, “Bambu Studio.” [Online]. Available: https://github.com/bambulab/BambuStudio. [Accessed: Oct. 22, 2026]. [9] RepRap, “G-code.” [Online]. Available: https://reprap.org/wiki/G-code. [Accessed: Oct. 22, 2026]. [10] T. D. McLouth, “Additive Manufacturing Standards,” National Institute of Standards and Technology. [Online]. Available: https://www.nist.gov/additive-manufacturing/standards. [Accessed: Oct. 22, 2026].
Publication Date
10/24/2026
Peer Review Type
Double-Blind Peer Review
Review Rounds: 2
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Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this research work.
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