Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)

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Filament deposition modeling, also known as fused filament fabrication, is the most common type of 3D printing — at least on the consumer side of things. If you’ve seen a 3D printer in person before, chances are pretty good that it was an FDM printer.

Functionally speaking, your average FDM machine works a lot like a hot glue gun that’s being operated by a robot. Solid material goes in one end, gets pushed through a hot nozzle, melts, and is deposited in thin layers. This happens over and over until a three-dimensional object emerges. The only difference is that instead of glue, these 3D printerstypically use a thermoplastic filament like ABS or PLA. These purposefully-engineered plastics are designed to melt and become liquid-like at a very specific temperature but return to a solid state after cooling down just a couple degrees.

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