IMPACT OF PROCESSING PARAMETERS IN MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE ADDITIVELY MANUFACTURED ACRYLONITRILE STYRENE ACRYLATE

In this study, a relatively new and low-cost commodity-type 3D printing filament material, acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA), was used as a feedstock to a commercially available, desktop fused filament fabrication 3D printer. The aim was to correlate the mechanical properties of the 3D printed specimen to the raster orientation and extrusion temperature. Although ASA bears multiple similarities to ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), its superior UV-resistant properties facilitate a wider adoption in various indoor and outdoor industrial applications. Following ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) D 638 standard, ASA specimens were 3D printed at raster orientation angles of 0 degrees/90 degrees, 30 degrees/60 degrees, and +45 degrees/-45 degrees at three different temperatures, namely: 230 degrees C, 250 degrees C, and 270 degrees C. The fabricated specimens were then tensile tested and relevant mechanical properties characterized, including the modulus of elasticity, ultimate tensile stress (UTS), and tensile strain at failure. Overall, ASA material showed promising strength properties for various printing parameters. In addition, the 0 degrees/90 degrees raster orientation was observed to yield the highest mechanical properties, with an average UTS of 34 MPa. The +45 degrees/-45 degrees and 30 degrees/60 degrees specimens showed lower but quite comparable properties with an average UTS of 31 MPa. The results also indicated a strong relationship between the print orientations and the extrusion temperatures. Furthermore, fractured surfaces of the tested specimens were a brittle and craze type of failure on the bulk of the bead. The results of this research may not only aid consumer-level manufacturing endeavors, but also support the industrial-scale manufacturing as well as the numerical modeling community to accurately predict appropriate manufacturing conditions and materials performance.