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Creep Deformation Behaviour of PC-ABS Parts Processed by Fused Deposition

Additive Manufacturing under Different Extrusion Parameters

Conference Paper · May 2017

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 CREEP DEFORMATION BEHAVIOUR OF PC-ABS PARTS PROCESSED BY
FUSED DEPOSITION ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING UNDER DIFFERENT
EXTRUSION PARAMETERS
Omar Ahmed Mohamed, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
Syed Hasan Masood, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
Jahar Lal Bhowmik, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract increased efficiency and mechanical properties of build

parts.
Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is a complex process Viscoelasticity plays a significant role in the
for many additive manufacturing practitioners as it performance of FDM processed parts. It is an essential
involves selection of a large number of intervening property of the product quality because thermoplastic
process conditions to produce quality products to meet materials exhibit time dependent behavior and is actually
customer needs and achieve competitive advantages. evaluating the material for long term performance and
Understanding the effect of operating conditions on the how the plastic flows when different FDM process
mechanical properties of FDM printed parts is an conditions are applied.
important task as they influence the functionality of the
products. The growing demand for use of Polycarbonate Several studies [2-10] have been conducted to
/Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (PC-ABS) alloys in the investigate and optimize the effect of FDM process
production of automotive components led to the need for parameters on the product properties such as tensile
understanding the creep deformation performance of strength, flexural strength, compression strength, surface
processed material and product under various processing roughness, and dimensional accuracy using various
parameters. This study investigates the effect of FDM designs of experiments and statistical analyses. So far, no
process conditions on creep deformation behaviour. A studies have been found to investigate the relationships
systematic study through definitive screening design and between FDM operating conditions and creep deformation
statistical analysis was carried out in order to correlate the behaviour and microstructure of manufactured parts. The
FDM processing parameters with the performance of PC- objective of this study is to investigate the effects of
ABS alloys. In this study, the regression model was several process parameters including layer thickness, air
developed for the calculation of the processing parameters gap, raster angle, build orientation, road width and
in FDM of PC-ABS products and gives technical number of contours on creep deformation behaviour and
information for the determination of which process microstructures of PC-ABS alloy processed by FDM
parameters are the best to use for practical purposes. process. The results can provide technical knowledge
would be useful for practical applications in industry.
Introduction
Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is the most common Materials and Methods
additive manufacturing process for the economic
production of plastic products of a variety of complex Creep tests were carried out for Polycarbonate
geometries and shapes. Production of items by FDM /Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (PC-ABS) alloy using
process involves a fine feedstock ribbon of plastic passing Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) machine. A total
through a computer-controlled extrusion head and then of 16 specimens having dimensions of 60 mm in length,
extruding through a nozzle to form layers onto the build 12.5 mm in width and 3.5 mm in thickness were
sheet where the material cools and eventually hardens, fabricated by FDM Fortus 400mc in accordance to the
producing a three-dimensional part [1]. FDM has been a Thermal Advantage Instrument (TAI) manufacturer
challenging process for many additive manufacturing recommendations (DMA2980, 2002). All creep tests were
users to produce quality products to meet industrial conducted in dual cantilever clamp with a constant stress
requirements. It is a complex additive manufacturing of 12 MPa at temperature of 80°C and soak time of 3
technology due to many processing parameters that must minutes. The applied stress of 12 MPa on the specimen
be considered before manufacturing a part [2]. was maintained for 30 minutes, and the applied stress was
then removed to allow specimen recovery for 90 minutes.
High-performance products processed by FDM, Experimental data were obtained through computer after
especially in the automotive and aerospace industries, creep tests through Thermal Advantage Software V5.5.3.
requires optimized process conditions that provide The FDM process parameters such as layer thickness, air
gap, raster angle, build orientation, road width and

SPE ANTEC® Anaheim 2017 / 13

number of contours were considered in this study. The Table 2. Definitive screening design matrix
selected process parameters and their levels are presented Ex. Process parameters CDR
in Table 1 and shown graphically in Figure 1. All 16 No A B C D E F (MPa)
specimens with different FDM process parameters
combinations were manufactured according to definitive 1 0.1270 0.00 0 90 0.5177 10 6.169
screening design matrix presented in Table 2. 2 0.3302 0.25 0 90 0.5782 1 6.404
3 0.1270 0.50 45 90 0.4572 1 2.512
Table 1. FDM process conditions and their levels 4 0.1270 0.50 0 0 0.5782 5 7.085
5 0.1270 0.00 90 45 0.5782 1 5.696
Levels 6 0.3302 0.50 0 45 0.4572 10 2.019
Parameters Unit Code
1 2 3 7 0.2540 0.00 0 0 0.4572 1 4.465
Layer 8 0.3302 0.50 90 0 0.5177 1 6.715
mm A 0.127 0.254* 0.3302
thickness 9 0.1270 0.25 90 0 0.4572 10 1.445
Air gap mm B 0 0.25 0.5 10 0.3302 0.00 90 90 0.4572 5 7.514
Raster 11 0.2540 0.50 90 90 0.5782 10 5.784
deg C 0 45 90
angle 12 0.2540 0.25 45 45 0.5177 5 4.415
Build 13 0.3302 0.00 45 0 0.5782 10 4.494
deg D 0 45 90
orientation 14 0.2540 0.25 45 45 0.5177 5 7.995
Road width mm E 0.4572 0.5177 0.5782 15 0.2540 0.25 45 45 0.5177 5 6.799
Number of 16 0.2540 0.25 45 45 0.5177 5 7.032
- F 1 5* 10
contours
* modified level
Results and Discussion

In this study, two-factor interaction (2FI) model was used

to fit the experimental data and it can be expressed as:
𝑘 𝑘
𝑌 = 𝛽0 + 𝛽𝑖 𝑋𝑖 + 𝛽𝑖𝑗 𝑋𝑖 𝑋𝑗 + 𝜀 (1)
𝑖=1 𝑖<𝑗

where 𝑌 denotes the predicted response, 𝑋7 and 𝑋8 are the

coded input variables, 𝑘 is the total number of
variables, β: is the constant term of the regression
equation, 𝛽7 is the linear regression coefficient, 𝛽78 is the
regression coefficient for interaction terms, and 𝜀 is the
random error term.
Figure 1. (a) layer thickness, (b) tool path parameters,
and (c) build orientations. The ranking of the six process parameters and their
significance on the creep deformation resistance is shown
in the Pareto chart in Figure 2. It can be seen from Figure
Definitive screening design is a new class of three-level 2 that road width (E), number of contours (F) and layer
experimental designs provides effective estimates of main thickness (A) are the most influential factors affecting the
effects and interaction effect that are not confounded creep deformation resistance of FDM printed parts.
(aliased) with any quadratic effects [11]. It requires
minimum number of experiments compared to the
conventional experimental designs. Definitive screening
design requires a minimum of 2𝑘 + 1 experimental runs,
where 𝑘 is the number of considered process conditions.
Hence, to examine the impact of six process conditions,
13 experimental runs are needed which include one center
point. However, three additional center points were added
to the 13 experimental runs to achieve better estimation of
the response curvature. The final definitive screening
design matrix can be seen in Table 2.

Figure 2. Pareto chart (sensitivity analysis)

SPE ANTEC® Anaheim 2017 / 14

The Analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique was used using layer thickness of 0.2540 mm, 5 contours, zero air
to determine the effect of each parameter on the creep gap, raster angle of 45˚, build orientation of 90˚ road
deformation resistance of FDM manufactured parts. It width of 0.5177 mm.
can be observed from Figure 3 that the creep deformation
resistance increases with an increase in layer thickness
(A) up to center level (0.254 mm), and then it decreases
with further increase in layer thickness. This is because
0.2540 mm of layer thickness allows for more uniform
material thermal distribution which can reduce the
distortion effect, hence increasing creep deformation. If
the part is printed with layer thickness of 0.127 mm there
will be many number of layers, hence micro-voids (Figure
4 (a)) are formed in the part structure, resulting in poor
quality. With the increase in Air gap (B) from 0.0 mm to
0.5 mm there is a reduction (Figure 3) in the deformation
resistance of the part because zero air gap makes the part
rasters closer to each other, resulting in dense
microstructure and stronger interfacial bonding strength
between internal rasters and across built layers.

Figure 3 also shows that raster angle has low influence on

the creep deformation resistance as an individual factor. It
can be noticed that raster angle of 45˚ has a little bit high
creep deformation resistance than the raster angles of 0˚ Figure 3. The main effect of process parameters on the
and 90˚. This is due to the fact that higher values of raster creep deformation resistance.
angles produce minimum amount of rasters, and thus they
reduce the chances of creating micro-voids in the part
structure. Furthermore, Figure 3 illustrates that the
deformation resistance of FDM manufactured parts can be
improved by orientating the part at 90˚. The probable
reason is that by orientating the part at 90˚ the stair-
stepping imperfection impact can be minimized, resulting
in better part structure. However, the optimum level of
build orientation depends highly on its interaction with
other parameters.

Road width (E) is one of the most influential factors

affecting the part creep deformation resistance as can be
seen in Figure 3. It is clear that center level of road width Figure 4. Interaction effect plots of process parameters on
has the highest creep deformation resistance. This is the creep deformation resistance.
probably due to the fact that 0.5177 mm of road width
produces more uniform raster widths, which can fill the
interior part structure better than other values of road
widths. It can also be observed from Figure 3 that the
center level of number of contours (F) improves the creep
deformation resistance significantly. The main reason for
this improvement in creep deformation resistance is that 5
contours increase heating rates and reduce heating time,
which can effectively melt the layers, resulting in more
dense structures as can be seen in Figure 4 (b).

Figure 5 shows the most significant interaction effects

between various process parameters on creep deformation
resistance. The lines in the interaction plot intersect each
other, which indicate that there are interactions between
Figure 5. Interaction effect plots of process parameters on
the factors. It is evident that maximum creep deformation
the creep deformation resistance
resistance can be obtained through the interaction plots by

SPE ANTEC® Anaheim 2017 / 15

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