Are We Able to Print Components as Strong as Injection Molded?—Comparing the Properties of 3D Printed and Injection Molded Components Made from ABS Thermoplastic

Abstract

In this paper, we are focusing on comparing results obtained for polymer elements manufactured with injection molding and additive manufacturing techniques. The analysis was performed for fused deposition modeling (FDM) and single screw injection molding with regards to the standards used in thermoplastics processing technology. We argue that the cross-section structure of the sample obtained via FDM is the key factor in the fabrication of high-strength components and that the dimensions of the samples have a strong influence on the mechanical properties. Large cross-section samples, 4 × 10 mm2, with three perimeter layers and 50% infill, have lower mechanical strength than injection molded reference samples—less than 60% of the strength. However, if we reduce the cross-section dimensions down to 2 × 4 mm2, the samples will be more durable, reaching up to 110% of the tensile strength observed for the injection molded samples. In the case of large cross-section samples, strength increases with the number of contour layers, leading to an increase of up to 97% of the tensile strength value for 11 perimeter layer samples. The mechanical strength of the printed components can also be improved by using lower values of the thickness of the deposited layers.

Multi-physics properties of thermoplastic polyurethane at various fused filament fabrication parameters

“…Figure 10 shows Young's modulus, ultimate tensile strength, elongation at break and porosity of TPU samples with three different thicknesses of layers (0.1 mm, 0.2 mm and 0.3 mm). A slight decrease of Young's modulus, ultimate tensile strength and porosity was observed as the thickness of the layers increased, which is similar to what is observed in the literature (El Magri et al, 2020;Podsiadły et al, 2021), but the variation is not significant regarding the standard deviations (pvalue > 0.05). The same conclusion was obtained for the elongation at break, it was around 820% at different layers thicknesses.…”

Additive Manufacturing of High-Temperature Thermoplastic Polysulfone with Tailored Microstructure via Precipitation Printing

“…This unique property of strong interlayer strength can be attributed to the applied pressure toward the previous layer that further improves the solvent welding performance. Compared to common materials fabricated by material extrusion, which usually have only 30–50% tensile strength in the layer stacking direction relative to the raw material tensile strength, , precipitation printing outperforms conventional material extrusion due to the high mechanical properties in the layer stacking direction.…”

Exploring high-stiffness pellets as filaments in fused filament fabrication

“…The filament with a diameter of 2.85mm (± 0.15mm) was 3D printed using optimal settings for PAHT. Five test specimens were printed using the highest quality filament in the X-Y direction, which is the strongest (Podsiadły et al, 2021), and then tested for tensile strength using the MTS Landmark 370 -50kN Axial Load tensile test machine. The UTS was measured in accordance with the ISO 527 standard at a test speed of 1 mm/min.…”