Additive Manufacturing 19 (2018) 29–38

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Additive Manufacturing
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/addma

Full Length Article

Process-structure-property effects on ABS bond strength in fused

filament fabrication
A.C. Abbott a,∗ , G.P. Tandon a , R.L. Bradford a , H. Koerner b , J.W. Baur b
a
University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, OH 45469, United States
b
Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Interlayer bonds pose regions of weakness in structures produced via melt extrusion based polymer addi-
Received 1 March 2017 tive manufacturing. Bond strength was assessed both between layers and within layers as a function of
Received in revised form 25 October 2017 print parameters by performing tensile tests on ABS coupons printed in two orientations. Print param-
Accepted 3 November 2017
eters considered were extruder temperature, print speed, and layer height. An IR camera was used to
Available online 4 November 2017
track thermal history of interlayer bond lines during the printing process. Contact length between roads
was measured from mesostructure optical micrographs. Print speed was found to have a large impact
Keywords:
on tensile strength with high speeds generally yielding lower strength. A plateau in tensile strength of
Fused filament fabrication
IR camera
22 MPa was observed for a normalized contact length greater than 0.6 independent of print orientation.
Road-to-road bond strength © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Mesostructure

1. Introduction adjacent roads and between layers in printed parts is measured

Additive manufacturing is an emerging manufacturing tech-
nique in which objects are fabricated in a layer-wise manner.
Material extrusion (ME), also known as fused filament fabrication
(FFF), is an additive manufacturing strategy whereby polymer fila-
ment is fed through a heated liquefier, is extruded through a nozzle,
and is deposited on a build surface or previously printed layers
where it quickly cools. Structural integrity of AM parts is derived
from bonding between adjacent and stacked extruded roads. Bond-
ing forms via a polymer coalescence mechanism and is a function
of thermal history at road interfaces. The cooling profile at road
interfaces defines a time window over which molecular diffu-
sion and randomization of the polymer chains at the interface can
occur and is limited at the low end by the polymer glass transi-
tion temperature at which polymer dynamics drop by an order
of magnitude. Additionally, the quality of the bond depends on
the neck growth which is formed between the adjoining rasters.
Increasing interfacial contact area between road interfaces offers
greater potential for strong bond formation as long as thermal con-
ditions drive polymer coalescence. Analysis that combines thermal
history at road interfaces with printed part mesostructure is criti-
cal as it relates to measured mechanical properties and elucidates
relationships between the ME process, printed structure, and struc-
tural performance. In this work, tensile strength of bonds between
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: andrew.abbott@udri.udayton.edu (A.C. Abbott).
while considering two factors: cooling profiles at layer interfaces
and road-to-road contact. These factors are varied by manipulat-
ing print parameters in accordance with a design of experiment.
Tensile strength results are analyzed as a function of road-to-road
contact normalized by the road dimensions.
Print parameters available for user control have a large impact
on the mechanical performance of printed parts. While available
parameters depend on the slicing software used and machine lim-
itations, some common parameters include: layer height, infill
orientation, infill density, and extruder temperature (TE ). Several
studies have utilized a design of experiment (DoE) approach to
analyze the effects of print parameters on mechanical proper-
ties of parts printed with acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS)
thermoplastic polymer. Tensile properties have been measured
in response to build orientation, infill angle, road width, air gap
between adjacent roads [1], extruder temperature, polymer col-
orants [2], unidirectional infill angle [3,4] and angle-ply laminates
[5–8]. Flexure properties [9,10] and compression properties [11]
have also been studied with respect to similar print parameters.
Other properties that have been considered include dimensional
accuracy [12,13] and elastic flexibility [14]. In general, these stud-
ies found infill angle and air gap to have the largest influence on
mechanical properties with infills aligned along the loading direc-
tion and small air gaps resulting in higher performance. Smaller
layer heights were also found to slightly improve mechanical per-
formance in most cases. Extruder temperature was generally not
observed to have a large impact on mechanical performance. All
of these studies varied print parameters and measured changes

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2017.11.002
2214-8604/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
30 A.C. Abbott et al. / Additive Manufacturing 19 (2018) 29–38
to some performance metric. However, underlying relationships
between print parameters and resulting mesostructure of printed
parts and their impact on mechanical performance have not been
explored in detail.
In the ME process, extruded roads of material partially coalesce
with adjacent and underlying roads. Road-to-road coalescence is
the mechanism that drives bond formation between roads. For-
mation of strong bonds is critical to the structural performance
of printed parts. Bond formation involves neck growth, molecular
diffusion between road interfaces, and polymer chain entangle-
ment which are strong functions of temperature [15]. Polymer
coalescence has been studied in literature [16–22] and is typi-
cally expressed as a function of the material properties surface
tension and viscosity. For the ME process, the thermal history at
road interfaces influences the dynamics of molecular diffusion and
entanglement and defines the processing window over which phys-
ical bonds can form. Thermal history of printed roads in the ME
process have been analyzed using thermocouples [9], fiber Bragg
gratings [23], and IR cameras [24–28], but little work has been done
to couple to printed part mechanical properties.
In this work, a DoE was applied to select print parameters to
observe the effects on extrudate cooling profiles, road-to-road con-
tact lengths, and transverse tensile strength. To reduce the number
of parameters in the DoE to a tractable amount, the four most
significant parameters were varied: extruder temperature, print
speed, layer height, and build orientation. Extruder temperature
and print speed were selected as means of varying thermal his-
tory while layer height was selected to manipulate mesostructure.
Build orientation was probed by fabricating tensile specimens in
two orientations shown in Fig. 1a with infill patterns arranged per-
pendicular to the loading direction such that either road-to-road
bonds (Fig. 1b) or interlayer bonds (Fig. 1c) carried applied load.
Other print parameters not included in this DoE, such as nozzle
size, feeder system, infill pattern, and build plate temperature, are
expected to have minor effects on thermal history of interlayer
bonds and mechanical performance. Nozzle size is expected to
affect the number of roads in a layer and thus may impact road-
to-road contact length and interlayer strength to a small degree.
Changing feeder systems is expected to have a negligible effect
on mechanical performance provided the target volumetric flow
rate out of the extrusion nozzle is satisfied. Infill pattern of spec-
imens printed in the XY orientation as shown in Fig. 1a will have
a large effect on mechanical properties. However, in the ZX ori-
entation, infill pattern will affect the number of roads in a layer,
but the effect on interlayer bond strength is expected to be minor.
Cooling of interlayer bonds was followed with an IR camera dur-
ing the printing process. Printed mesostructures were analyzed by
optical microscopy and normalized contact lengths were measured.
Tensile specimens were printed in the build orientation described
because road-to-road and interlayer bonding are identified as per-
formance limiting. Therefore, tensile specimens were loaded to
assess the performance limiting strengths. A tensile test was seen
as the most direct way of probing road-to-road and interlayer bond
strength and was therefore selected over other test methods, such
as bending, which introduce other modes such as compression and
shear. Measured tensile strengths were examined relative to nor-
malized contact lengths.
2. Experimental procedures
2.1. Definitions of mesostructure parameters
Specimens were printed in two orientations to measure road-
to-road and interlayer bond strengths. Bond strength between
adjacent roads within the same layer aligned in the axial direction
Table 1
Print parameters and levels from which a full-factorial DoE was created.
Factor Low level High level
Extruder temperature (◦ C) 230 270
Print Speed (mm/s) 10 50
Layer height (mm) 0.1 0.3
Orientation XY ZX
can be assessed with tensile coupons printed flat (XY orientation).
Vertically printed (ZX orientation) tensile coupons have bonds
between layers oriented in the axial direction (Fig. 1a). Mesostruc-
tures are described by measured parameters shown in Fig. 1b and
1c where Lcx and Lcz are the contact lengths over which tensile load
is applied, hx is the height or thickness of a road in the XY orien-
tation and hz is the road width in the ZX orientation, and Wsx and
Wsz are referred to as road spacing. Wsx and Wsz are taken as the
distance between adjacent contact lengths such that Wsx and Wsz
reduce to hx and hz if there is no additional space between adjacent
roads.
2.2. Printing procedure and design of experiment
Tensile strength of unidirectional ME coupons printed in the XY
and ZX orientations was measured for dog bone shaped coupons.
Specimens were 64 mm long, 10 mm wide in the grip section, with a
gage section 5 mm wide and 28 mm long, and 2 mm thick. Coupons
were fabricated from Makerbot ABS filament using an nScrypt
3Dn-500 system with an nFD pump. While the molecular weight
of the filament was not measured, common values for number
average molecular weight of polymer filaments used for ME are
100–200 kDa [29,30]. It is recognized that molecular weight plays
a vital role in road-to-road diffusion and bond formation [31,32].
The nScrypt 3Dn-500 system utilizes a 3-axis Aerotech gantry with
support for four tools. One such tool is the nFD pump which features
a worm gear mechanism to advance standard 1.75 mm diameter
polymer filament into a heated section comprised of a ceramic
nozzle through which the polymer is extruded and a metal nozzle
holder. The nozzle holder houses a cartridge heater and thermocou-
ples connected to controllers for closed loop feedback temperature
control. The gantry system is outfitted with a heated build plate
measuring 330 mm square and capable of heating to 200 ◦ C. Poly-
imide tape was placed over the build plate to provide a surface
for adhesion to ABS and the plate temperature set points were
110 ◦ C and 120 ◦ C for XY and ZX oriented coupons respectively. An
increased build plate temperature was required for ZX coupons to
ensure adhesion between the coupons and the polyimide substrate.
At a set point of 110 ◦ C, the measured temperature at the center of
the build plate was 106 ◦ C. At a set point of 120 ◦ C, the measured
temperature at the front edge of the build plate was 113 ◦ C. Tem-
perature variation across the entire build plate was within 10 ◦ C.
Slic3r was used to generate G-code machine control code based on
user-selected print parameters.
A full-factorial DoE procedure was used to measure tensile
strength as a function of the selected print parameters in Table 1.
These print parameters were selected for their expected influ-
ence over road cooling time and adjacent road contact area. Large
contact area and slow cooling are expected to promote diffusion
of polymer across adjacent road boundaries thereby improving
road-to-road tensile strength. The DoE was conducted with four
parameters each with two levels to form an experimental matrix
with sixteen unique parameter combinations. These parameter
combinations were applied to each print orientation. Three repli-
cates were printed for each combination. For XY oriented coupons,
three replicates sharing the same print parameters were printed
non-sequentially (one layer for each before printing the next layer)
 A.C. Abbott et al. / Additive Manufacturing 19 (2018) 29–38
Fig. 1. (a) Printed orientations: XY (flat) and ZX (vertical). Contact length, road height, and road spacing notation is defined for (b) XY and (c) ZX orientations.
during the same build. For the ZX orientation, only one coupon
was printed at a time. ZX oriented coupons proved difficult to
print without flaws as overhanging regions in the top grip sections
were printed without support material. Additionally, the slender
specimen geometry had small contact areas with the build surface
and some specimens prematurely detached from the build surface
before print completion. Programming the build plate set point
to 120 ◦ C mostly alleviated detaching issues. Vertically oriented
coupons printed with an extruder temperature of 230 ◦ C resulted
in top grip sections that were uneven and rough and therefore were
not tensile tested.
2.3. IR camera temperature calibration
Bond line temperature was observed for coupons printed in the
ZX orientation using a Merlin Indigo IR camera equipped with an
ASIO 3–5 ␮m wavelength microscope lens manufactured by Janos
Technologies featuring an adjustable focal length of 75–150 mm.
The image size captured by the camera using this lens was approx-
imately 7.5 by 6 mm with a resolution of 320 by 256 pixels. The
integration time, i.e.; the refresh rate of the IR detector, was set to
250 ␮s. A LabView program was used to record video from the IR
camera at a rate of 15 frames per second and to record IR counts
at user-defined pixels in each frame. After collecting videos, the
IR counts were converted to temperature following a calibration
curve. The calibrations curve was constructed by printing an ABS
block with two 10 mm long channels on one side located 1 mm from
the front face and 0.3 mm from the top and bottom faces (Fig. 2a).
Thermocouples were placed in the channels (Fig. 2b) and the block
was heated on the build plate. Build plate temperature was held
at several values between 50 ◦ C and 100 ◦ C in increments of 10 ◦ C
and allowed to reach approximate steady state at each value. Tem-
perature was recorded from embedded thermocouples as well as
with the IR camera on the front face of the block at points A and B
corresponding to thermocouple locations as shown in the IR image
in Fig. 2c. IR counts were plotted against thermocouple tempera-
ture and fit with a logarithmic function (Fig. 2d). Because the focal
length of the IR camera lens was short, ZX specimens were printed
close to the front edge of the build plate protecting the camera from
the build plate temperature.
2.4. Optical microscopy for mesostructure analysis
Mesostructures of printed coupons were examined using optical
microscopy with a 2.5 x objective for large field of view. Images
were captured in the gage section of coupons that were not tensile
tested, but rather manufactured using the same print parameters
exclusively for imaging. Three measurements were made for each
unique coupon: contact length, road height, and road spacing as
described in Fig. 1b and c. Measurements were made with ImageJ.
All values are reported as averages of at least 30 measurements per
specimen.
31
2.5. Tensile testing procedure
Quasi-static tensile tests were performed on an MTS load frame
at a rate of 1.27 mm/min (0.05 in/min). Strain was measured in both
the axial and transverse directions with an MTS advantage video
extensometer (AVX). This technique operates by the principles of
digital image correlation (DIC). DIC is a non-contact strain measure-
ment technique that converts from measured pixel displacement to
local strain by using a correlation algorithm [33]. DIC has a number
of advantages over contact strain measurement methods (e.g. strain
gauges or extensometers) including: the ability to detect spatially
variable strains, adaptability to aggressive environments, and suit-
ability for soft materials such as polymers for which adhesive strain
gauges would cause local stiffening and inaccurate strain detection
[34]. Software tracked displacement of speckles painted on each
specimen during mechanical loading and used this information to
calculate axial and transverse strain. Before testing, coupons were
dried at 75 ◦ C for 14 h under vacuum to remove moisture adsorbed
by ABS; a hygroscopic polymer [35]. Although the weight change
of dried specimens was insignificant, the drying procedure was
retained for consistency with other commonly used ME polymers,
such as Ultem, which readily absorb moisture.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Rationale for print parameter selection
Increasing the extruder temperature was expected to increase
both the initial polymer diffusion rate as well as the amount
of time the polymer was above its glass transition temperature
(Tg). Expanding the time window for diffusion of polymer chains
across road boundaries was expected to increase polymer coa-
lescence, entanglement, and therefore bond strength. Print speed
was expected to affect the thermal history of bondlines. As bond
strength is derived from polymer diffusion which is a function of,
among other things, time at temperature, print speeds that maxi-
mize time at temperature are favorable. Depositing molten polymer
was expected to reheat both adjacent and underlying bond lines
through radiation and conduction. Reheating would temporarily
accelerate polymer diffusion and entanglement. In this way, bond
formation would intermittently progress in response to reheating
from continued road deposition during a print. This bond formation
mechanism is expected to be promoted by slower print speed. At
slower speeds, the heated nozzle is expected to provide local heat-
ing for longer time through radiation. Once the print progresses
far enough that a specific bond line is no longer heated above Tg by
deposition of subsequent roads, bond development is considered to
have ceased. Smaller layer height was expected to increase inter-
layer bond strength. By decreasing layer height, more layers are
needed to print any given object. Printing more layers was expected
to create more opportunities for reheating underlying bond lines
promoting additional polymer diffusion and entanglement.
32 A.C. Abbott et al. / Additive Manufacturing 19 (2018) 29–38

Fig. 2. (a) calibration block for IR counts with (b) thermocouple hole dimensions. (c) IR image of block heated on build plate with thermocouple and IR counts measured at
locations A and B. (d) calibration curve for 250 ␮s integration time.

Fig. 3. Representative cooling curves obtained with an IR camera for coupons printed with (a) TE = 230 ◦ C and (b) TE = 270 ◦ C. The Tg of ABS polymer is given by a horizontal
line. (c) Dashed box represents the IR camera field of view. Build surface not drawn to scale.

3.2. Thermal history of road-to-road bond lines The Tg of ABS was measured as 103.6 ◦ C using differential scanning
calorimetry (DSC) with a heating rate of 10 ◦ C/min. The camera was
Average duration of time that bond lines between layers were focused on the gage section of dog bone coupons. Due to space con-
above Tg was measured with an IR camera for ZX oriented coupons. straints, bond line temperatures of XY oriented coupons were not
 A.C. Abbott et al. / Additive Manufacturing 19 (2018) 29–38
Table 2
Time at T > Tg from IR thermal history measurments.
TE (◦ C) Speed (mm/s) Layer height (mm) Time at T > Tg (s)
230 10 0.1 50
230 10 0.3 35
230 50 0.1 39
230 50 0.3 32
270 10 0.1 58
270 10 0.3 50
270 50 0.1 50
270 50 0.3 54
measured. Because the IR camera was only capable of measuring
relatively narrow temperature ranges, and because measurement
fidelity near room temperature was to be maintained, the maxi-
mum measurable temperature was limited. Using a 250 ␮s detector
integration time yielded a measurable temperature range between
160 ◦ C and 65 ◦ C. Therefore, bond line temperature measurement
was initiated shortly after road deposition.
Average time at T > Tg was determined for layer-to-layer bond
lines at each print parameter combination in the DoE. Fig. 3 shows
representative cooling curves for each print parameter combina-
tion. Bond line temperature was measured for ZX coupons at a
distance from the build plate of about 25 mm. The IR camera field
of view is represented by the dashed box in Fig. 3c. IR reflections as
described in [24] were considered, but found to only occur for the
layer directly below the actively printing layer. Because IR counts
from this layer saturated the detector while printing, IR reflection
effects were disregarded. As expected, increasing extruder temper-
ature (TE ) led to longer time above Tg as seen by comparing cooling
curves at low TE in Fig. 3a and high TE in Fig. 3b. Table 2 gives the
average amount of time bond lines existed above Tg within the IR
camera field of view. Slower print speeds led to longer time above
Tg contrary to expected results. This phenomenon is suspected to
be caused by the small cross-sectional area of tensile coupons’ gage
section (10 mm2 ) which limited required nozzle travel distance.
The nozzle remained in close proximity to deposited roads acting
as a radiative heat source. Radiative heating would have been more
influential for slower print speeds [24]. Smaller layer heights led to
an increase in time above Tg likely due to the combined effects of
local heating from the nozzle and improved compaction between
layers. Specimen geometry is expected to have a large impact on
the cooling profile. Increasing cross-sectional area while holding
print speed constant is expected to reduce the time period over
which bond line temperatures are above Tg.
Fig. 4 captures the main effects of each print parameter on the
duration of time above Tg. In a main effects plot, a minus (−) corre-
sponds to the average measured property for coupons printed with
the low level of the specified print parameter whereas a plus (+) cor-
responds to the high value of the print parameter. Main effects plots
show the relative impact of each print parameter by the absolute
value of the slope of the line connecting the low and high values.
A high slope indicates that a parameter had a large impact.
3.3. Analysis of mesostructure features
Print parameter settings have significant impact on the resulting
structure of printed parts as seen by optical microscopy. Mesostruc-
tures of select XY oriented coupons are displayed in Fig. 5 where
the vertical and horizontal directions are aligned with the build and
applied load directions respectively. The viewing plane for these
images is the XZ plane as shown in Fig. 5b where Z is the thickness
direction. It is important to note that reported contact length only
implies physical contact. It does not necessarily imply molecular
diffusion has occurred across road boundaries. The ratio of Lcx /hx
is termed the fractional contact length. It indicates the extent to
33
Fig. 4. Main effects plot of relative effects of print parameters on time above Tg for
ZX printed coupons.
which contact spans the height of the roads. As this ratio approaches
one, the contact length approaches the maximum equal to the full
height of the road. Fig. 5c shows a micrograph of a coupon printed
with low TE , slow speed, and large layer height represented in the
figure as 230/10/0.3. Effects of extruder temperature on mesostruc-
ture are seen by comparing Fig. 5c and d. Examining Table 3 reveals
that neither Lc nor Lcx /hx directly trend with TE . At low print speed,
contact length decreases with increasing TE. Conversely, contact
length increases with increasing TE at high print speed. As seen in
the main effects plot with error bars indicating standard error in
Fig. 6a, TE had little effect on Lcx /hx compared to the other print
parameters. The effect of print speed is qualitatively assessed by
comparing Fig. 5c–e. A decrease in both Lcx /hx and contact length is
observed and confirmed by measured values presented in Table 3.
This trend of decreasing contact length with increasing speed was
common to all pairs of coupons printed with the same TE and
layer height. Fig. 6a captures this trend indicating that Lcx /hx was
larger on average at lower print speeds. Layer height effects are
qualitatively assessed by comparing Fig. 5d–f. These coupons were
printed with high TE and slow speed. Smaller layer height results
in oblong roads with small contact lengths perpendicular to the
direction of applied load. While increasing layer height resulted
in adjacent roads with longer Lcx , Lcx /hx only slightly increased on
average because road height also increased.
Micrographs of ZX oriented coupon mesostructures are com-
pared in Fig. 7 in which the build and loading directions are
collinear. The image in Fig. 7c corresponds to a specimen printed
with high TE , large layer height, and slow speed (270/10/0.3). Effects
of TE are seen by comparing Fig. 7c and d. Higher TE resulted in
longer Lc and Lcz /hz due to lower polymer viscosity enabling more
flow and coverage of underlying layers. For all print parameter com-
bination, increasing TE increased Lcz /hz which is captured in Table 4
and the main effects plot in Fig. 6b. Speed effects are assessed
by comparing Fig. 7e and f. Both of these coupons were printed
with high TE and small layer height. Increasing speed decreased
Lcz , Lcz /hz , and Lc /Wsz in Table 4. When Lcz /Wsz is less than Lcz /hz ,
adjacent roads are not in contact which is expected to interfere
with transfer of applied load and reduce mechanical properties.
Fig. 6b shows that print speed had a large effect on Lcz /hz with
slower speed preferred. Effects of layer height on mesostructure are
seen by comparing Fig. 7c–e. The coupon in Fig. 7e had good com-
paction between the layers (Z direction) and yielded the largest Lcz
and highest Lcz /hz . For this print orientation, increasing layer height
decreased Lcz and Lcz /hz due to the change in road geometry.
The coupon in Fig. 6c (270/10/0.3) had the second longest
average contact length. The time above Tg for this parameter com-
bination was 49.5 s, the shortest of any ZX print, but yielded the
highest average tensile strength. This implies that 49.5 s above Tg
was likely sufficient for polymer diffusion across bond lines and
34 A.C. Abbott et al. / Additive Manufacturing 19 (2018) 29–38

Fig. 5. XY mesostructures. Coupons printed in XY orientation shown in (a), sectioned along the XZ, and imaged at the created surface. Contact length measured perpendicular
to loading direction (b). Select mesostructures (c-f) with print parameters given in format TE /speed/layer height. Scale bar = 1 mm.

Table 3
Contact length from mesostructure analysis and tensile strength for each print parameter combination in XY oriented coupons.

TE (◦ C) Speed (mm/s) Layer height (mm) Lcx (␮m) Lcx /Wsx Lcx /hx

230 10 0.1 87 ± 10 0.8 ± 0.1 0.8± 0.1

230 10 0.3 247 ± 23 0.8 ± 0.1 0.8 ± 0.1
230 50 0.1 52 ± 35 0.5 ± 0.3 0.5 ± 0.3
230 50 0.3 144 ± 24 0.5 ± 0.1 0.5 ± 0.1
270 10 0.1 68 ± 12 0.7 ± 0.1 0.7 ± 0.1
270 10 0.3 233 ± 31 0.8 ± 0.1 0.8 ± 0.1
270 50 0.1 57 ± 12 0.6 ± 0.1 0.6 ± 0.1
270 50 0.3 173 ± 20 0.6 ± 0.1 0.6 ± 0.1

Fig. 6. Main effects plots of relative effects of print parameters on fractional contact length in a) XY and b) ZX orientations.

Fig. 7. Coupons printed in the ZX orientation (a) were sectioned along the YZ plane and rotated. Contact length was measured perpendicular to the loading direction (b).
Select mesostructures (c–e) with print parameters indicated as TE /speed/layer height. Scale bar = 1 mm.
 A.C. Abbott et al. / Additive Manufacturing 19 (2018) 29–38
Table 4
Contact length from mesostructure analysis and tensile strength for available print parameter combination in ZX oriented coupons.
TE (◦ C) Speed (mm/s) Layer height (mm)
230 10 0.1
230 10 0.3
230 50 0.1
230 50 0.3
270 10 0.1
270 10 0.3
270 50 0.1
270 50 0.3
formation of interlayer bonds. Above some critical threshold time
at T > Tg for sufficient interlayer polymer diffusion, normalized and
fractional contact length are likely the primary factors driving ten-
sile strength of printed coupons. Below the threshold, polymer
diffusion is the primary factor limiting tensile strength. Polymer
sintering models are sufficient to describe interlayer diffusion in ME
[15–22]. Road interfaces of coupons printed in the ZX orientation
with high extruder temperature are suspected to be above some
critical threshold time at temperature to allow for molecular diffu-
sion across road interfaces and development of higher mechanical
properties. The coupons in Fig. 6c and e printed with small layer
height exhibit substantial compaction between the layers forming
long contact lengths perpendicular to the direction of applied load.
Compaction is expected to aid in bond formation if the polymer is
above the critical temperature for molecular diffusion.
3.4. Analysis of mesostructure effects on tensile strength
Tensile experiments gave strength results between 10 and
22 MPa for both orientations. Compiled results are given in Table 5.
It should be noted that one of the specimens printed with the
parameter combination ZX 270/10/0.1 yielded the highest mea-
sured tensile strength value of 27.5 MPa. The large deviation
(7.19 MPa) in the average value (19.37 MPa) was caused by fail-
ure of some samples at defects induced during printing. Overall,
these results are similar to those by Rayegani et al. [1] for parts ori-
ented at 90◦ (ZX orientation) and with a 0◦ raster angle. Their results
depend highly on air gap, the edge-to-edge spacing between adja-
cent roads. With a negative air gap, the measured tensile strength
is as high as 24 MPa, but a positive air gap yielded strengths up to
only 9 MPa. Although air gap was not directly controlled in results
presented here, results for high print speed are more similar to
Rayegani’s results for positive air gap. Bellini et al. [36] printed
ZX tensile specimens and obtained an average strength of 7.6 MPa
although the authors used a [0/90/ ± 45] print path. Ahn et al. [2]
measured tensile strengths of 90◦ raster angle prints in the XY
orientation with a negative and zero air gaps and obtained approx-
imately 12 and 4 MPa respectively. Rodriguez et al. [7] also printed
specimens with 90◦ raster angle in the XY orientation with a nega-
tive air gap and obtained tensile strength of about 14 MPa. Rezayat
et al. [6] measured tensile strengths of approximately 25 MPa and
18 MPa for negative and zero air gaps respectively for specimens
printed in the XY orientation. Huang et al. [3] measured the tensile
strength of printed ABS rectangular bars with 90◦ infill orientation
to be 10.08 MPa. For reference, ABS filament tensile strength was
reported as 33–37 MPa [3,6,7]. Literature results are summarized
in Table 6. Variation in tensile strength among experimenters may
be attributed to differences in other print parameters, the machine
used to manufacture specimens, or differences in ABS material from
different manufacturers.
Fractional contact length was expected to track with tensile
strength provided that there was sufficient time at temperature
greater than Tg for molecular diffusion between roads and bond
formation to develop. Fig. 8 plots tensile strength of both XY and
35
Lcz (␮m) Lcz /Wsz Lcz /hz
– – –
271 ± 18 0.7 ± 0.1 0.7 ± 0.1
318 ± 72 0.7 ± 0.3 0.6 ± 0.2
134 ± 21 0.2 ± 0.1 0.4 ± 0.1
476 ± 27 0.9 ± 0.1 0.9 ± 0.1
320 ± 12 0.8 ± 0.1 0.8 ± 0.1
312 ± 26 0.7 ± 0.1 0.9 ± 0.1
220 ± 42 0.5 ± 0.1 0.6 ± 0.1
Fig. 8. Tensile strength plateaus with normalized contact length where there is
contact between adjacent roads.
ZX orientation against fractional contact length Lcx /hx and Lcz /hz .
A fractional contact length of unity implies that all available area
for bond formation has been utilized. Fractional contact length of
one along with road spacing equal to road height is equivalent to
injection molded fully dense polymer. Fig. 8 plots fractional con-
tact length (Lcx /hx and Lcz /hz ) against tensile strength. A plateau
is observed around 22 MPa beginning at Lcx /hx of 0.6. Beyond this
point, neither increasing Lcx /hx nor Lcz /hz led to any significant
improvement in tensile strength. The reduction in tensile strength
with fractional contact lengths below 0.6 implies that there is insuf-
ficient contact for strong bond formation. Of the data points with
fractional contact length below 0.6, three were printed in the XY
orientation. While the average fractional contact length is reported
for these specimens, there were some adjacent roads that were not
in contact at all and therefore had no bond strength. Lack of con-
tact between some roads reduces the effective cross-sectional area
to which load was applied contributing to knockdown in tensile
strength.
3.5. Print parameter effects on tensile strength
Relative effects of print parameters on tensile strength for XY
and ZX coupons are shown in Fig. 9a and b respectively. For the
XY orientation, printing with higher TE , slower speed, and larger
layer height increased tensile strength. This parameter combina-
tion yields longer contact lengths between adjacent roads with
increased local heating from the nozzle and increased time for
molecular diffusion across road boundaries and hence is preferred
for increased tensile strength. For the ZX orientation, TE effects
were not captured because the coupons failed to print at low
extruder temperature. Slow speed and small layer height were
favorable in the ZX orientation. Small layer height in the ZX orien-
tation allowed for compaction between layers thereby increasing
the contact length and opportunity for molecular diffusion. For the
36 A.C. Abbott et al. / Additive Manufacturing 19 (2018) 29–38

Table 5
Tensile strength results for coupons printed in both XY and ZX orientations.

TE (◦ C) Speed (mm/s) Layer height (mm) Tensile Strength (MPa)

XY ZX

230 10 0.1 20.2 ± 1.7 –

230 10 0.3 21.5 ± 0.2 –
230 50 0.1 10.2 ± 1.2 –
230 50 0.3 16.8 ± 1.2 –
270 10 0.1 22.4 ± 1.0 19.4 ± 7.2
270 10 0.3 22.0 ± 2.3 22.7 ± 0.8
270 50 0.1 15.1 ± 0.2 22.1 ± 2.1
270 50 0.3 22.8 ± 2.3 10.8 ± 1.1

Table 6
Summary of print parameters and ABS tensile strength from literature.

Author Orientation Infill angle (◦ ) Air gap Tensile strength (MPa)

Rayegani [1] ZX 0 Negative 24

ZX 0 Positive 9
Bellini [36] ZX 0/90/ ± 45 7.6
Ahn [2] XY 90 Negative 12
XY 90 Zero 4
Rodriguez [7] XY 90 Negative 14
Rezayat [6] XY 90 Negative 25
XY 90 Zero 18
Huang [3] XY 90 Negative 10.08

Fig. 9. Main effects plots of tensile strength as a function of print parameters.

XY orientation, low tensile strength was measured for faster print
speeds and lower TE . The combination of faster print speed and
smaller layer height also yielded poor mechanical properties. The
highest tensile strengths were obtained with three print parame-
ter combinations which had high TE and: slow speed with small
layer height; slow speed with large layer height; and fast speed
with large layer height. From a manufacturing standpoint, fabri-
cation of mechanically robust products at a fast production rate
of is most desirable. Aggregate results captured in Fig. 9a show
that high TE , slow speed, and large layer height are preferable in
the XY orientation. Production rate, currently viewed as one hur-
dle to wide adoption of additive manufacturing, is fastest with fast
print speed and large layer height. For the XY orientation, this print
parameter combination along with high TE yielded good tensile
strength. However, this same parameter combination printed in
the ZX orientation produced the lowest tensile strength. Fig. 9b
indicates slow speed and small layer height were favorable in the
ZX orientation. Slow speed with high TE and large layer height
produced nearly identical tensile strength regardless of print orien-
tation. Additionally, these tensile strengths were among the highest
recorded in this study and therefore present a possible combination
for production of quality parts while mitigating print orientation
concerns.
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to identify which
print parameters had statistically significant effects on tensile
strength. An ANOVA is performed with the null hypothesis that
the variance between two or more populations is equal. By com-
paring the variance, or mean squares, within a population to
that between populations, the null hypothesis is either accepted
(parameter has no statistically significant effect on the measure-
ment) or rejected (parameter has a statistically significant effect).
In addition to examining the significance of individual parameters,
combining this technique with a full-factorial DoE allows for exam-
ination of the significance of parameter interactions [37]. The F
value indicates the ratio of the variance between sample means to
the variance among samples [14]. Large F values imply high vari-
ability among the means. In other words, the higher the F value,
the greater chance that a parameter is significant. A parameter is
deemed significant if the calculated F value is larger than a criti-
cal F value defined by the confidence interval. A p value less than
the significance level indicates that the parameter has a signifi-
cant effect on the measurement. The ANOVA approach has been
applied to other DoE studies on ME in literature [10–12]. A sig-
nificance level of ␣ = 0.05, a 95% confidence interval, was used in
this study. Considering only XY orientation for which a full tensile
strength dataset was collected, all three parameters had significant
effects based on p < 0.05 as shown in Table 7. There was only one
degree of freedom (DF) for the XY orientation. Two interactions
between parameters were found to be significant: speed*TE , and
speed*layer height. Including both XY and ZX orientations in the
analysis yielded print speed as the only significant parameter as
 A.C. Abbott et al. / Additive Manufacturing 19 (2018) 29–38
Table 7
ANOVA table for XY orientation tensile strength.
Source DF Mean Square
TE 1 0.733
Speed 1 2.234
Layer height 1 1.129
TE *Speed 1 0.315
TE *Layer height 1 0.00005
Speed*Layer height 1 0.694
TE *Speed*Layer height 1 0.125
Table 8
ANOVA table factoring both XY and ZX orientations.
Source DF Mean Square
Orientation 1 10.49
TE 1 59.95
Speed 1 203.07
Layer height 1 21.04
shown in Table 8. Interaction effects were not captured in Table 8
because the ZX dataset did not include coupons printed at low TE .
4. Conclusions
Relationships between print parameters, thermal history
between roads, mesostructure, and tensile strength were studied
with DoE methodology. Print parameters selected for manipula-
tion were extruder temperature, print speed, layer height, and print
orientation. Increasing print speed was found to negatively affect
the tensile strength and contact length for both print orientations.
Extruder temperature played a more minor role than print speed,
but increasing temperature led to increased tensile strength and
contact length. The effect of layer height on contact length was
found to strongly depend on print orientation. Larger layer height
was found to yield higher tensile strength for XY orientation as
this increased the contact length between neighboring roads. Small
layer height was preferred for ZX orientation due to increased
compaction between roads promoting longer contact lengths. For
high TE , longer time at temperature greater than Tg correlated to
increased Lcz /hz and increased tensile strength.
Two key findings are the strength plateau of tensile strength
with contact length and the impact of print orientation on the
layer height/contact length/strength relationship. Tensile strength
plateaued with a normalized contact length greater than 0.6 for
both build orientations. An implication of this result is that a struc-
ture can be designed to be less than fully dense without sacrificing
interlayer strength and therefore contribute to weight savings. Ten-
sile strength results emphasize the importance of build orientation
on selection of print parameters. In this study, build orientation
determines favorability of small or large layer height. There is not a
universal set of print parameters that will generate optimal prop-
erties for all possible build orientations. Rather, a designer must
carefully consider build orientation and print parameter selection.
Design and manufacturing decisions should be based on antici-
pated in-service conditions such as magnitudes and directions of
mechanical stresses.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
37
F Value p
13.06 0.0047
39.83 0.001
20.11 0.0012
5.62 0.0393
0 0.9767
12.38 0.0056
2.24 0.165
F Value p
0.48 0.4954
2.72 0.1096
9.23 0.005
0.96 0.3363
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Ronald Trejo and Dayle
Pearson for their assistance in performing mechanical testing and
digital image correlation. Richard Reibel and Sathish Shamachary
are acknowledged for lending the use of the IR camera.
References
[1] F. Rayegani, G.C. Onwubolu, Fused deposition modelling (FDM) process
parameter prediction and optimization using group method for data handling
(GMDH) and differential evolution (DE), Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 73 (1–4)
(2014) 509–519.
[2] S.H. Ahn, M. Montero, D. Odell, S. Roundy, P.K. Wright, Anisotropic material
properties of fused deposition modeling ABS, Rapid Prototyping J. 8 (4) (2002)
248–257.
[3] B. Huang, S. Singamneni, Raster angle mechanics in fused deposition
modelling, J. Compos. Mater. 49 (3) (2015) 363–383.
[4] R. Y. Yan, G. Zhang, X. Yuan Hong, Research on the bonding of material paths
in melted extrusion modeling, Mater. Des. 21 (2) (2000) 93–99.
[5] O.S. Es-Said, J. Foyos, R. Noorani, M. Mendelson, R. Marloth, B.A. Pregger,
Effect of layer orientation on mechanical properties of rapid prototyped
samples, Mater. Manuf. Processes 15 (1) (2000) 107–122.
[6] H. Rezayat, W. Zhou, A. Siriruk, D. Penumadu, S.S. Babu, Structure-mechanical
property relationship in fused deposition modelling, Mater. Sci. Technol. 31
(8) (2015) 895–903.
[7] J.F. Rodriguez, J.P. Thomas, J.E. Renaud, Mechanical behavior of acrylonitrile
butadiene styrene fused deposition materials modeling, Rapid Prototyping J. 9
(4) (2003) 219–230.
[8] S.H. Ahn, C. Baek, S. Lee, I.S. Ahn, Anisotropic tensile failure model of rapid
prototyping parts – fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 17
(8-9) (2003) 1510–1516.
[9] Q. Sun, G.M. Rizvi, C.T. Bellehumeur, P. Gu, Effect of processing conditions on
the bonding quality of FDM polymer filaments, Rapid Prototyping J. 14 (2)
(2008) 72–80.
[10] D. Luzanin, Effect of layer thickness, deposition angle, and infill on maximum
flexural force in FDM-build specimens, J. Technol. Plast. 39 (1) (2014) 49–58.
[11] A.K. Sood, R.K. Ohdar, S.S. Mahapatra, Experimental investigation and
empirical modelling of FDM process for compressive strength improvement,
J. Adv. Res. 3 (1) (2012) 81–90.
[12] R.K. Sood, Improving dimensional accuracy of Fused Deposition Modelling
processed part using grey Taguchi method, Mater. Design 30 (10) (2009)
4243–4252.
[13] A. Boschetto, L. Bottini, F. Veniali, Integration of FDM surface quality modeling
with process design, Addit. Manuf. Part B 12 (2016) 334–344.
[14] B.H. Lee, J. Abdullah, Z.A. Khan, Optimization of rapid prototyping parameters
for production of flexible ABS object, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 169 (1) (2005)
54–61.
[15] C. Bellehumeur, L. Li, Q. Sun, P. Gu, Modeling of bond formation between
polymer filaments in the fused deposition modeling process, J. Manuf.
Processes 6 (2) (2004) 170–178.
[16] C.T. Bellehumeur, M.K. Bisaria, J. Vlachopoulos, An experimental study and
model assessment of polymer sintering, Polym. Eng. Sci. 36 (17) (1996)
2198–2207.
[17] C.T. Bellehumeur, M. Kontopoulou, J. Vlachopoulos, The role of viscoelasticity
in polymer sintering, Rheol. Acta 37 (3) (1998) 270–278.
38 A.C. Abbott et al. / Additive Manufacturing 19 (2018) 29–38
[18] C.-S. Chen, T.-J. Chen, R.-D. Chien, S.-C. Chen, Investigation on the weldline
strength of thin-wall injection molded ABS parts, Int. Commun. Heat Mass
Transfer 34 (4) (2007) 448–455.
[19] N. Rosenzweig, M. Narkis, Coalescence phenomenology of spherical polymer
particles by sintering, Polymer 21 (9) (1980) 988–989.
[20] N. Rosenzweig, M. Narkis, Newtonian sintering simulator of 2
spherical-particles, Polym. Eng. Sci. 23 (1) (1983) 32–35.
[21] Y. Hiram, A. Nir, A simulation of surface-tension driven coalescence, J. Colloid
Interface Sci. 95 (2) (1983) 462–470.
[22] P.R. Hornsby, A.S. Maxwell, Mechanism of sintering between polypropylene
beads, J. Mater. Sci. 27 (9) (1992) 2525–2533.
[23] C. Kousiatza, D. Karalekas, In-situ monitoring of strain and temperature
distributions during fused deposition modeling process, Mater. Des. 97 (2016)
400–406.
[24] J.E. Seppala, K.D. Migler, Infrared thermography of welding zones produced
by polymer extrusion additive manufacturing, Addit. Manuf. Part A 12 (2016)
71–76.
[25] R.B. Dinwiddie, L.J. Love, J.C. Rowe, Real-time Process Monitoring and
Temperature Mapping of a 3D Polymer Printing Process, Conference on
Thermosense – Thermal Infrared Applications XXXV, 2017, Baltimore, MD.
[26] R.B. Dinwiddie, J.M. Kunc, B. Lindal, R.J. Post, L. Smith, Infrared Imaging of the
Polymer 3D-Printing Process, Conference on Thermosense – Thermal Infrared
Applications XXXVI, 2014, Baltimore, MD.
[27] K. Pooladvand, C. Furlong, Thermo-mechanical investigation of fused
deposition modeling by computational and experimental methods, in: W.C.
Ralph, R. Singh, G. Tandon, P.R. Thakre, P. Zavattieri, Y. Zhu (Eds.), Mechanics
of Composite and Multi-functional Materials, Volume 7: Proceedings of the
2016 Annual Conference on Experimental and Applied Mechanics, Springer
International Publishing, Cham, 2017, pp. 45–54.
[28] S.F. Costa, F.M. Duarte, J.A. Covas, Estimation of filament temperature and
adhesion development in fused deposition techniques, J. Mater. Process.
Technol. 245 (2017) 167–179.
[29] N.P. Levenhagen, M.D. Dadmun, Bimodal molecular weight samples improve
the isotropy of 3D printed polymeric samples, Polymer 122 (2017) 232–241.
[30] J.M. Skorski, Z. Esenther, A.E. Ahmed, The chemical, mechanical, and physical
properties of 3D printed materials composed of TiO2-ABS nanocomposites,
Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 17 (1) (2016) 89–97.
[31] C. McIlroy, P.D. Olmsted, Deformation of an amorphous polymer during the
fused-filament-fabrication method for additive manufacturing, J. Rheol. 61 (2)
(2017) 379–397.
[32] C. McIlroy, P.D. Olmsted, Disentanglement effects on welding behaviour of
polymer melts during the fused-filament-fabrication method for additive
manufacturing, Polymer 123 (2017) 376–391.
[33] B. Pan, K.M. Qian, H.M. Xie, A. Asundi, Two-dimensional digital image
correlation for in-plane displacement and strain measurement: a review,
Meas. Sci. Technol. 20 (6) (2009).
[34] F. Hild, S. Roux, Digital image correlation: from displacement measurement to
identification of elastic properties – a review, Strain 42 (2) (2006) 69–80.
[35] M. Notomi, K. Kishimoto, T. Shibuya, T. Koizumi, Effects of moisture
absorption on fracture behaviors of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene resin, J.
Appl. Polym. Sci. 72 (3) (1999) 435–442.
[36] A. Bellini, S. Guceri, Mechanical characterization of parts fabricated using
fused deposition modeling, Rapid Prototyping J. 9 (4) (2003) 252–264.
[37] W.J. DeCoursey, Introduction to analysis of variance, statistics and probability
for engineering applications, Elsevier Sci. (2003) 294–323.