Effect of layer thickness and raster angle on the tribological behavior of 3D printed materials

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a manufacturing process which add material into a solid 3-dimensional product. Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) or Fused filament Fabrication (FFF) is one of the most common additive manufacturing methods. Parts processed by FDM are usually serve as prototypes of concept design and unable to use a functioning part due to their mechanical and tribological properties. Material wear has been a huge problem for machines as it is the main contributor to machine failures. Tribological behavior of AM part are required to be enhanced if AM parts are purposed to be functioning parts. Due to the nature of manufacturing technique, the tribological properties are affected by the FDM printing parameters. In current work, tribological properties of 3D printed pins, printed at different raster angle and layer thickness were investigated. FDM printed Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) and Polylactic Acid (PLA) samples were printed at three raster angle 0°, 45° and 90° and three layer thickness of 0.127 mm, 0.254 mm and 0.33 mm. Experiments were conducted on a pin-on-disk tribometer apparatus under dry sliding condition and fixed load of 10 N and 300 rpm. Results has shown that an increase of layer thickness promotes a decrease in friction force while an angle of 45° displays the best wear resistance. ABS is proofed to have better wear resistance than PLA.