Effect of Vacuum Assisted Fused Deposition Modeling on 3D Printed ABS Microstructure

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) or commonly known as the 3D printer is one of the most used and accessible additive manufacturing (AM) technology commonly used for prototyping and product applications. Easily produced from a drawn 3D CAD model, FDM can 3D print any intricate parts and the products are based on polymer material such as ABS. FDM works by depositing a thin layer of extruded polymer filament on a build platform layer by layer to create a solid 3D part. Nonetheless, FDM is still far behind regarding product quality such as mechanical strength. In order to produce a functional part, high strength is required to prevent stress and strain failure. Studies found out that one of the main reasons behind poor strength was the imperfect bonding between layers at z-axis. During the printing process, the bonding process occurred to quick, and the layers did not fused properly. Therefore, the current progress in FDM slowed down and prevented to be fully utilised as end-use parts. This paper presents a microstructure study on the effect of integrating vacuum system with FDM to improve 3D printed specimen’s tensile strength. The results indicated positive improvements of tensile strength when printed using vacuum assisted compared to normal atmospheric ones. The microstructure observation from scanning electron microscope showed the specimens produced under vacuum assisted had a superior bonding between layers.

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