Mechanical Testing of 3D Printed Materials

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) has been a rapidly growing 3D printing technology for polymer-based products. Additive manufacturing technologies have seen an expansion into printing various polymers, including acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA) on various printers and print conditions. In this study, we evaluate the tensile strength characteristics of FDM printed ABS and PLA parts. Specimens with a dog bone geometry were printed on a FlashForge Creator Pro 3D printer, using the ASTM D638 standard test method. Along with the two types of material, build orientation, wall thickness, infill percentage, and infill geometry were varied in this study. An Instron tensile testing machine was used to evaluate the stress–strain characteristics of each specimen and determine the tensile strength of the parts. It was found that the material type and wall thickness had the greatest effects on the tensile strength of 3D printed parts. In addition, the authors identified an optimal printing parameter to maximize the strength, but also to minimize the printing time and amount of material used to make each part.