Anisotropic material properties of fused deposition modeling ABS

Rapid Prototyping (RP) technologies provide the ability to fabricate initial prototypes from various model materials. Stratasys Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is a typical RP process that can fabricate prototypes out of ABS plastic. To predict the mechanical behavior of FDM parts, it is critical to understand the material properties of the raw FDM process material, and the effect that FDM build parameters have on anisotropic material properties. This paper characterizes the properties of ABS parts fabricated by the FDM 1650. Using a Design of Experiment (DOE) approach, the process parameters of FDM, such as raster orientation, air gap, bead width, color, and model temperature were examined. Tensile strengths…