Enhancing Mechanical Behavior of As-Built and Annealed Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG) Fabricated With Fused Filament Fabrication by Varying Infill Densities

Abstract

Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG) is a thermoplastic polymer that has high durability and is a good choice for various automotive and industrial applications, therefore, this polymer can be used for fabricating several types of fiber reinforced polymer composites. However, the studies are very limited to account the effect of different infill speeds on mechanical properties of post-processing of 3D printed PETG samples. These data are important to exploit the PETG sample properties in the above mentioned applications. This research gap is filled in this study. Fused Filament Fabrication (3-D printing process) was used to fabricate the samples. After fabricating the samples, mechanical tests (hardness, tensile and impact) carried on annealed and as-built samples to evaluate the mechanical behavior of PETG with various infill densities. Test samples were printed using infill density ranging from 20%, 40% and 60%, to determine the best composition of the material with overall performance such as hardness, tensile, and impact strength. As expected, the mechanical properties, such as hardness, tensile strength, and impact strength of PETG samples were increased with the increase of infill density in samples from 20% to 60%. Interlayer diffusion bonding increased and it enhances the mechanical properties of printed samples through post- processing method of annealing. The annealed and as-built 3D printed samples test results were compared, according to their varying infill densities varying from 20%, 40% and 60%. The experimental data presented in this work is useful for fabricating functional parts using PETG with an infill density of 60% with a post-processing method for the replacement of automobile and aeronautical components in the future.