Effect of Printing Direction and Post-Printing Conditions on Bending Properties of ULTEM 9085

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to reveal the effect of printing direction and post-printing conditions on static and fatigue bending characteristics of Ultem 9085 at two stress levels. Right after the printing, the Ultem samples were subjected to three cooling conditions: cooling in the printer from 180 to 45 °C for 4 h, rapid removal from the printer and cooling in the oven from 200 to 45 °C during 4 h, and removal from the printer and cooling at room temperature. Static 3-point bending tests were performed to estimate the flexural characteristics of Ultem 9085 samples after subjecting them to different post-printing conditions. The flexural strain was evaluated and applied for the stress ratios such as 75% and 50% of σmax. Thus, displacement-controlled fatigue tests were carried out to reveal the effect of post-printing conditions on fatigue bending characteristics. The results obtained for the X and Y printing directions proved that the Ultem samples subjected to the cooling conditions in the printer and the oven had a similar static and fatigue behavior, while a lower performance was obtained for the samples cooled at room temperature. Regardless of the cooling regime, significantly lower bending performance was revealed for the samples printed in the Z-direction since they have intra-layer filaments parallel to the stress plane, and, accordingly, intra-layer adhesion has a crucial influence on mechanical performance. --//-- This is an open access article Glaskova-Kuzmina, T.; Dejus, D.; Jātnieks, J.; Kruuv, P.-P.; Zolotarjovs, A.; Einbergs, E.; Vanags, E. Effect of Printing Direction and Post-Printing Conditions on Bending Properties of ULTEM 9085. J. Compos. Sci. 2023, 7, 316. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs7080316 published under the CC BY 4.0 licence.