Determination of Fatigue Characteristics of 3D Printed Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS)

Abstract

Recently, the use of 3D printer technology has become significant to industries, especially when involving new product development. 3D printing is a technology, which produces the 3D product or prototype using a layer-by-layer technique. 3D printing could reduce costs because it can efficiently use raw materials and produce less waste. However, there becomesless research on the mechanical performance of the 3D printed component. This study focuses on the evaluating of fatigue characteristics of 3D printed ABS specimens. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) has been chosen for material research due to its wide applications. Two types of specimen used, which is 3D printing and moulding specimens. The fused deposition modelling (FDM) technique was used to produce the specimens. The dog bone shape part was produced based on ASTM D638 standard and the tensile test has been carried out to get the mechanical properties. The fatigue test was carried out at 40%, 60%, and 80% of the tensile strength. The moulded part shows higher fatigue cycles compared to 3D printed part for all loading percentages. Fatigue lives for 40%, 60% and 80%, were 911, 2645 and 26948 cycles, respectively. The results indicated that 3D printed part has a lower fatigue life, which may not suitable for industrial applications. However, the 3D printed part could be improved by using various parameters and may be introduced in low-strength applications.