Experimental Investigation into the Influence of Filament Layer Arrangement on the Tensile Strength of FFF-Manufactured Components

One major disadvantage of fused filament fabricated components (FFF) is its well-known anisotropy, which results from the layer-wise adding of material, and that it is not always possible to avoid loading in the layer build-up direction. In particular, components that are exposed to multi-axial load conditions must manage with reduced tensile strength in the build-up direction. This work is therefore concerned with improving the tensile strength transverse to the layering by changing the layer structure without directly changing the material itself. Therefore, the print-defining G-Code was modified to change the arrangement between the layers. The effectiveness of this method was investigated by means of tensile tests using thermoplastic samples made of Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate (ASA), Poly Cyclohexylenedimethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PCTG), Poly Ethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG) and Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) for layer thicknesses of 0.16 mm and 0.28 mm. The results show that the G-Code modification generally resulted in an increase in tensile strength. For PETG, an improvement of 25% was achieved.