The Effect of FDM Process Parameters on the Compressive Property of ABS Prints

Abstract

Most 3D-printed FDM items are not solid-printed because printing solids requires a large amount of material and a relatively long printing time, both of which result in higher printing costs. Most items are printed with a hard shell and proper infill density to optimize the printing process. The shell width, the filling density, the infill pattern, and the thickness of the layer all play an important role in the quality of the printed items. This new work aims to characterize the FDM process to apply this technology in printing parts to withstand stresses by focusing on the most important process parameters that contribute to improving the bearing of parts when exposed to compression. For this purpose, the effects of four main parameters of the FDM, which are: infill density, outer shell width, infill pattern, and layer thickness, with different levels of each parameter, were investigated, and the effect of each of these parameters on the compressive property of the printed parts was also examined. The Taguchi method was used to design the experiments so that all parameter levels were tested in the fewest possible number of tests. The signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) was also used to clarify and measure the effect of the process variables on the compressive property. The compression test was adopted as the basis for analyzing test results, which confirmed that the effect of the infill density on the compressive resistance can be classified at a strong level (rank 1), and that of the outer shell width on the compressive resistance can be classified at a level ranging from medium to strong (rank 2), while that of the infill pattern on the compressive resistance can be classified at a range from weak to medium level (rank 3), and the effect of the layer thickness on the compressive resistance can be classified as weak (rank 4). This work provides an opportunity to improve the functionality of the multipurpose FDM process, which can be used to reduce the number of raw materials required, efficiently shorten printing times, and enhance the compressive properties to meet the needs of FDM print design better.