Raster Angle and Infill Percentage Influence on Selected Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG) and High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS)

Abstract

Abstract This work investigated the influence of raster angle and infill percentage on selected mechanical properties of two commonly used 3D Printed materials: Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG) and High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) at room temperature. Their Elastic Modulus, Yield Strength, and Toughness were experimentally determined and compared for infill densities of 5%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%, and raster angles of 0/90, 45/45, and 30/60. The materials were printed using Fused Deposition Modeling per ASTM D638-22 standards, with a layer thickness of 0.3 mm, an initial layer speed of 35 mm/s, and an infill speed of 50 mm/s. The initial layer speed and infill speeds were 35 mm/s and 50 mm/s, respectively. The team concluded that PETG material, on average, outperformed HIPS when looking at Young’s Modulus of the printed samples. There are few instances where HIPS has a higher Young’s Modulus, i.e., 45-45 at infill 100%, 45-45 at infill 50%, and 30-60 at infill 100%. The PETG samples often exceeded the toughness of HIPS as well. As seen in the tables, there are a few cases in which HIPS has much higher toughness than the same raster and infill percentage as PETG. For instance, HIPS samples at 0-90 angles and infill percentages of 50% and 75%. Overall, the team concluded that PETG, on average, outperforms HIPS in both Young’s Modulus and toughness during the testing. PETG would be suitable for most situations, whereas HIPS would fail more often if substituted for PETG.