Fracture mechanics performance of 3D printed amorphous thermoplastic polymers at impact and quasi-static loading

Rapid manufacturing of individualized products made from plastics using 3D printing technologies will now become a highly growing market. However, the influence of morphology and processing parameters (such as speed of printing and screen angle) on the fracture mechanics performance of such additively produced materials is still inadequately investigated. Therefore, the effect of processing parameters, loading rate (impact and quasi-static loading) on the crack-growth behaviour (unstable and stable crack growth) of thermoplastic polymers (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS) and polycarbonate (PC)) has been analyzed using instrumented Charpy impact test, essential-work-of-fracture approach and crack-resistance-curve concept combined with non-destructive methods. Whereas the printing speed doesn't affect the fracture mechanics parameters the building orientation is clearly affecting the fracture performance. Here the orientation 45 degrees/45 degrees reveals higher toughness than the orientation 0 degrees/90 degrees due to mode II portions during the fracture process.