A Study on Mechanical Properties of Low-Cost Thermoplastic-Based Materials for Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing

The present research focused on studying the mechanical properties of three commercially available thermoplastic-based materials used for the additive manufacturing (AM) fused filament deposition (FFD) method. The scientific motivation for the study was the limited information available in the literature regarding the materials’ properties, the inconsistencies that were recorded by other scientists between the materials’ properties and the technical datasheets and the anisotropic behavior of additively manufactured materials. Thereby, it was considered of great importance to perform an extensive study on several materials’ mechanical properties, such as tensile properties and flexural properties. Three materials were tested, Tough PLA, nGen CF10 and UltraFuse PAHT CF15. The tests consisted of monotonic tensile tests, open-hole tensile tests and three-point bending tests. The tests were assisted also with the use of microscopical investigations. Framed specimens’ configurations with two different raster orientations (90°/0° and −45°/+45°) were manufactured using an in-house-developed 3D printing equipment. The best mechanical performances were recorded for UltraFuse PAHT CF15. The 90°/0° raster orientations ensured the highest tensile, open-hole tensile and flexural strength, regardless of the material type, while the −45°/+45° raster orientations ensured the highest elongation values. The analysis showed the importance of the experimental validation of materials for AM.