Preliminary Study on Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed Multimaterials ABS/PC Parts: Effect of Printing Parameters

Abstract

This research work highlights the mechanical properties of multi-material by fused deposition modelling (FDM). The specimens for tensile and flexural test have been printed using polycarbonate (PC) material at different combinations of printing parameters. The effects of varied printing speed, infill density and nozzle diameter on the mechanical properties of specimens have been investigated. Multi-material specimens were fabricated with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) as the base material and PC as the reinforced material at the optimum printing parameter combination. The specimens were then subjected to mechanical testing to observe their tensile strength, Young’s modulus, percentage elongation, flexural strength and flexural modulus. The outcome of replacing half of ABS with PC to create a multi-material part has been examined. As demonstrated by the results, the optimum combination of printing parameters is 60 mm/s printing speed, 15% infill density and 0.8 mm nozzle diameter. The combination of ABS and PC materials as reinforcing material has improved the tensile strength (by 38.46%), Young’s modulus (by 23.40%), flexural strength (by 23.90%) and flexural modulus (by 37.33%) while reducing the ductility by 14.31% as compared to pure ABS. The results have been supported by data and graphs of the analysed specimens.