Influence of orientation on mechanical properties for high-performance fused filament fabricated ultem 9085 and electro- statically dissipative polyetherketoneketone

This study investigates the influence of print orientation and raster patterns on the mechanical behavior of Ultem 9085 and Antero 840CN03 (Electro-Static Dissipative Polyetherketoneketone; ESD-PEKK) used in fused filament fabrication printing. Samples were printed in Flat, Edge, and Vertical orientations, while the raster angle was altered from 0, to 45, to 90 degrees with successive layers being either perpendicular or parallel. Monotonic testing revealed the mechanical strength of ESD-PEKK outperformed Ultem 9085 in flat (68.8 vs. 64.2 MPa), edge (95.7 vs. 76.1 MPa), and vertical (49.6 vs. 40.0 MPa) print orientations with a 45 degrees perpendicular infill. The variation of raster angle and pattern was almost always detrimental to the mechanical properties compared to Edge print orientations with 45 degrees perpendicular infill. Fatigue testing was also performed on all three orientations with a 45 degrees perpendicular infill. The fatigue strength for the worst-case, vertically printed samples, was 3.5x higher for ESDPEKK compared to Ultem (16 MPa vs. 4 MPa). All samples tested could be fitted with a power-law relationship, and each material showed low variability within their power-law exponents. This article discusses the performance of ESD-PEKK and Ultem 9085 and their potential use as aerospace and defense-grade polymers.