(359c) High Throughput Mechanical Analysis (HTMECH) of Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) Printed Multi-Material Parts

Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) is a promising 3D printing method of integrating the useful properties of two different materials into a single functional object through multi-material printing. The inefficient interlayer bonding between the two materials during printing, however, results in poor mechanical behavior of the end-part along with dimensional inconsistencies and delamination between layers, limiting the use of FFF for industrial applications. In addition, testing the tensile properties using conventional uniaxial tensile testing can be time consuming. In this work, High Throughput Mechanical Analysis (HTMECH) is developed as a rapid screening method to test the tensile properties and interfacial bonding of FFF printed multi-material parts in reduced time as a function of 3D printing conditions and material properties. This is done by comparing the tensile properties of multi-parts parts measured using conventional uniaxial tensile testing methods on dog-bones with ones obtained using HTMECH on dog-bones. Various compositions of polycarbonate (PC)-based resins are used to print neat filaments with reinforced filaments to analyze the effect of fillers (carbon-fibers, PC-ABS blend) on mechanical behavior, whereas Poly(Lactic Acid) (PLA) is printed with poly(caprolactone) (PCL) to evaluate the interfacial properties and mechanical behavior between two completely different materials.