Fracture toughness of additively manufactured ULTEM 1010

Abstract

ABSTRACTOne of the polymer additive manufacturing processes commonly used today is fused deposition modelling (FDM). FDM is the process of manufacturing three-dimensional structure through the use of a layer-by-layer printing of the polymer filament. Due to the anisotropic nature of FDM parts, the orientation of the rasters and the build orientation have an effect on the mechanical properties of a part. This study evaluates the fracture toughness of FDM solid-build specimens manufactured from Ultem 1010. The effects of build orientation and raster orientation were investigated through the use of a full-factorial design of experiments. The fracture toughness was obtained using single-edge notch bend test for a range of build orientations and rasters typically used in the FDM process. The design of experiments uses the results of the single-edge notch bend test to determine the significance the factors, build orientation and raster angle, have on the response variable, conditional critical stress intensity factor. Ultem 1010 parts were also microscopically examined to understand the primary failure mode around the rasters. The primary results of this study include the relationship of the build parameters to each other and to the fracture toughness of Ultem 1010.