The effect of printing parameters on crack growth rate of FDM ABS cantilever beam under thermo-mechanical loads

Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is the most widely used additive manufacturing (AM) process in the customised and low-volume production industries. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) is the most commonly used thermoplastic printing material for FDM. The fabricated FDM ABS parts commonly work under thermo-mechanical loads in reality. In order to produce the high fatigue performance FDM ABS components, it is significant to investigate the effect of 3D printing parameters on crack growth. Hence, this research evaluated the crack propagation under bending fatigue test for FDM ABS beam in high-temperature conditions with varying printing parameters, including building orientations, nozzle size and layer thickness. The combination of three building orientations (0°, ±45° and 90°), three nozzle sizes (0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 mm) and three layer thickness (0.05, 0.1 and 0.15 mm) were tested under 50 to 70 °C environmental temperature ranges. The research attempted to investigate the relationship between crack growth rate and different printing parameter combinations. The study also attempted to determine the possible parameter combination which achieved the longest fatigue life for the FDM ABS specimen. Preliminary experimental results showed that the specimen with 0° building orientation, 0.8 mm filament width and 0.15 mm layer thickness vibrated for the longest time before the fracture at every different temperature.