Effects of Build Parameters on Additive Materials

Abstract : This project investigates the effects of build parameters on the properties of a thermoplastic used in fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Dogbone and cubed shaped FDM samples were produced with varying raster angle, build orientation, beadwidth, and number of plies. Tensile strength experiments are presented and show that unlike typical polymers FDM parts fail due to brittle fracture, while parts built with larger beadwidth are more ductile. Structural simulations are presented with the samples considered as orthotropic composite laminates. Thermal expansion experiments show that FDM parts expand15% less than bulk material. Heat transfer simulations are presented for samples with various raster angle orientations and temperatures between 55 deg C to 85 deg C.