Page 42 - FDMAsia Jul/Aug 2026

40 TECHNOLOGY JUL/AUG 2026 FDM ASIA | www.fdmasia.com

easy-peasy.ai 5P consistently increased material consumption and printing
time without proportional mechanical improvement.
This is a classic case of diminishing returns: the extra
material in the core or the additional outer layers does not
contribute effectively to load transfer because the connector's
critical failure region is the neck (where the cross-section

changes), not the core.
The FEM analysis confirmed this: the highest stress
concentrations occurred in the connector neck, not in the
infill region. For manufacturers, this means that using 40
percent infill or 5 perimeter walls is rarely justified for dovetail
This finding has clear practical implications: furniture connectors of this type.
designers and manufacturers should prioritise increasing The additional material increases cost and printing time while
perimeter count over infill density when aiming to improve providing negligible performance gains. This is a significant
joint strength. opportunity for cost reduction in production.

Three perimeter walls (approximately 1.2 mm shell thickness) Reducing material consumption in FDM-printed connectors
provided an excellent balance of mechanical performance and has direct sustainability benefits. Lower polymer use means
material efficiency. reduced reliance on fossil-based or bio-based filament materials.
Increasing to five perimeters brought little additional benefit Shorter printing times mean lower energy consumption per
in bending moment or stiffness while substantially increasing connector.
material use and production time. Lighter connectors reduce the overall weight of furniture,
Two configurations stood out as optimal, depending on which may reduce transportation energy. The use of recycled

the design priority. For maximum material efficiency (strength PLA+ (RePLA+) in this study further supports circular material
per gram of material), 3P20 achieved the highest specific flows in furniture manufacturing.
bending moment (3,903 N·mm/g). The 3P20 and 3P30 configurations demonstrate that it is
This configuration uses only 3.51 g of filament and prints in possible to achieve sufficient mechanical performance with
444 seconds, yet provides mechanical performance sufficient significantly less material than conventional "over-engineered"
for many furniture applications. approaches.
For maximum mechanical performance (strength and This aligns with broader trends in sustainable furniture
stiffness), 3P30 achieved the highest rotational stiffness (6,172 design, where material efficiency and design optimisation are
N·mm/deg) and one of the highest bending moments (14,998 increasingly important.

N·mm), with only moderate material consumption (3.98 g, Based on these findings, the following practical guidelines
469 seconds). can be offered for furniture manufacturers. Use three perimeter
These two configurations represent the best trade-offs walls as a default for dovetail connectors in corner joints,
between performance, material use, and production time. as this provides a good balance of strength, stiffness, and
Both use three perimeter walls, which appears to be the material efficiency.
optimal shell thickness. Keep infill density between 20–30 percent, as higher densities
Increasing infill density to 40 percent or perimeter count to provide negligible strength improvement while increasing cost