CHARACTERIZING THE ANISOTROPIC TENSILE BEHAVIOR AND DUCTILITY OF FFF-PRINTED ABS BASED ON PRINT DIRECTION AND RASTER ORIENTATION

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Production Engineering and Mechanical Design Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, 31521, EGYPT.

Abstract

Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) produces components with significant mechanical anisotropy, critically impacting their reliability in load-bearing applications. This study comprehensively characterizes how both printing direction (Flat, On-Edge, Up-Right) and raster orientation angle (systematically varied from 0° to 90°) govern the uniaxial tensile strength and ductility (strain at failure) of FFF-ABS. ASTM D638 Type IV specimens were fabricated with consistent parameters (50% infill), varying only these orientations, followed by tensile testing and optical fractography.
 
Profound anisotropy was confirmed. Printing direction established distinct performance tiers: Flat yielded the highest potential strength, On-Edge was intermediate, while Up-Right consistently demonstrated the lowest strength and minimal ductility due to brittle inter-layer delamination. The raster orientation angle acted as a critical modulator, particularly for Flat and On-Edge. In the Flat direction, 0° raster alignment maximized strength, whereas 90° minimized it; notably, intermediate angles (e.g., ±45°) suggested enhanced ductility, highlighting a tunable strength-ductility trade-off. On-Edge properties also showed significant raster angle sensitivity. Conversely, Up-Right behavior remained largely insensitive to raster angle, dominated by interface weakness. Fractographic analysis correlated failure mechanisms with mechanical outcomes: delamination in Up-Right samples, mixed inter/intra-raster failure in On-Edge, and distinct raster-angle-dependent modes (inter-raster vs. intra-raster) in Flat samples. This research underscores that optimizing FFF-ABS requires careful selection of both printing direction and raster angle to achieve the targeted balance between tensile strength and ductility for specific engineering requirements.

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