Fused Filament Fabrication 3D Printers

PrintCity has 30 Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) and Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM*) printers.

These adaptable printers enable production using low-cost materials, with a wide range of colour and polymer options. The filaments also come in several wood and metal varieties, and wood prints can be varnished to produce a high-quality finish.

FFF and FDM printers work by melting a strand of polymer that is fed from a roll of filament into a heated extruder, connected to pulleys and rods. These pulleys and rods then draw out layers in the shape of the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) model.

Each layer is melted (fused) onto the previous one and the model is built up, while the print bed is lowered one layer at a time.

Our FFF printers have build chambers ranging from 200 x 200 x 200m up to 1m x 1.5m x 700mm, which offers students, academics and businesses an impressive range of materials and sizes with which to build their products.

A large number of Ultimaker printers (3, 3 Extended and S5s) incorporate dual extruders, enabling either two colour or multi-material parts to be printed. Alternatively, the second extruder can be used to deliver dissolvable support material (PVA), which enables the FDM printers to print far more complex parts than printers with one extruder.

*FDM is a trademark of the company Stratasys but the process is the same as FFF.

Fused Filament Fabrication 3D Printers - PrintCity - Manchester Metropolitan University - Facilities and Equipment

Get in touch

If you're interested in working with us, or have questions about studying with us please get in contact.

 Telephone: 0161 247 6464

 Email: printcity@mmu.ac.uk

 Twitter: PrintCityMMU

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    Our Equipment

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