On the effects of process parameters and optimization of interlaminate bond strength in 3D printed ABS/CF-PLA composite

The scope of additive manufacturing, particularly fused deposition modelling (FDM), can indeed be explored with the fabrication of multi-material composite laminates using this technology. Laminar composite structures made up of two distinct materials, namely acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and carbon fiber reinforced polylactic acid (CF-PLA), were produced using the FDM process. The current study analyzes the effect of various printing parameters on the interfacial bond strength (IFBS) of the ABS/CF-PLA laminar composite by employing response surface methodology. The physical examination of the tested specimens revealed two failure modes, where failure mode 1 possessed high IFBS owing to the phenomenon of material patch transfer. Contrarily, failure mode 2 yielded low IFBS, while no patch transfer was observed. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that printing parameters were highly interactive in nature. After extensive experimentation, it was revealed that good quality of IFBS is attributed to the medium range of printing speed, high infill density, and low layer height. At the same time, a maximum IFBS of 20.5 MPa was achieved. The study presented an empirical relation between printing parameters and IFBS that can help in forecasting IFBS at any given printing parameters. Finally, the optimized printing conditions were also determined with the aim to maximize IFBS. © 2020 by the authors.