Deposition strength of specimens manufactured using fused deposition modeling type 3D printer

The 3D printing market is growing fast, and related manufacturing techniques are being developed rapidly. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) type 3D printing is simple and inexpensive, and hence is popular. Moreover, it can be used for printing various thermoplastic materials. However, its deposition strength is low because stacking melted filaments is a non-continuous process. In this study, deposition strengths along directions parallel and orthogonal to the deposition direction at three temperatures and on three materials, poly lactic acid (PLA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and polyamide6 (PA6) were compared and analyzed. Parallel to the deposition direction, deposition strength did not depend on temperature, whereas along the orthogonal direction, deposition strength increased with the process temperature. For PLA, ABS, and PA6, the average deposition strengths along the orthogonal direction were 55.72%, 41.46%, and 45.99%, respectively, of the average deposition strength along the deposition direction.