A Preliminary Analysis of the Effects of Process Parameters on the Impact Resistance of 3D Printed PETG and HIPS

Additive manufacturing (AM) allows the development of novel and customized products with tailored properties. However, the application of extrusion-based AM techniques (i.e., fused deposition modeling - FDM) in the design of functional parts is often limited because of the poor mechanical performance as a consequence of the nature of the process to build the object in a layer-by-layer fashion. In the current study, the impact resistance of the 3D printed polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified (PETG) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) was evaluated as a function of three printing parameters (i.e., printing temperature, layer height and line width). Izod-type test specimens were fabricated and analyzed according to the ASTM D256. The contribution of each factor was properly analyzed. The results also indicated that the printing temperature was the most significant parameter for the impact resistance of 3D printed PETG and HIPS. The obtained findings may be considered as valid only within the limit of parameters and ranges investigated in the current study.