Fabrication of Thin‐Walled Metal Structures with Enhanced Energy Absorption Capabilities by Metal‐Fused Deposition Modeling without Using Debinding Chemical Reagents

The emerging metal‐fused deposition modeling (FDM) technologies offer economical and safe options for manufacturing metal structures with a high degree of flexibility. Great challenges still exist in fabricating metal structures using metal FDM without complicated debinding processes. This study shows that thin‐walled metal structures are fabricated by the combination of metal FDM and thermal debinding. The wall thickness needs to be less than 0.45 mm to avoid cracks and bloating deformation during thermal debinding with a heating rate of 1 °C min⁻¹ in either vacuum environment or Ar gas environment. The stainless steel fabricated by the metal FDM without using debinding chemical reagents exhibits a yield strength of 189 MPa and an ultimate tensile strength of 407 MPa, which is comparable to the stainless steel fabricated by the metal FDM methods using debinding chemical reagents. In addition, the thin‐walled metal structure fabricated by the metal FDM possesses higher energy absorption capabilities than the metal structure fabricated by the laser powder bed fusion. These results are valuable for the further exploration of thin‐walled metal structures fabricated by the metal FDM without using debinding chemical reagents.