Influence of orientation on mechanical properties for high-performance fused filament fabricated ultem 9085 and electro-statically dissipative polyetherketoneketone

This study investigates the influence of print orientation and raster patterns on the mechanical behavior of Ultem 9085 and Antero 840CN03 (Electro-Static Dissipative Polyetherketoneketone; ESD-PEKK) used in fused filament fabrication printing. Samples were printed in Flat, Edge, and Vertical orientations, while the raster angle was altered from 0, to 45, to 90° with successive layers being either perpendicular or parallel. Monotonic testing revealed the mechanical strength of ESD-PEKK outperformed Ultem 9085 in flat (68.8 vs. 64.2 MPa), edge (95.7 vs. 76.1 MPa), and vertical (49.6 vs. 40.0 MPa) print orientations with a 45° perpendicular infill. The variation of raster angle and pattern was almost always detrimental to the mechanical properties compared to Edge print orientations with 45° perpendicular infill. Fatigue testing was also performed on all three orientations with a 45° perpendicular infill. The fatigue strength for the worst-case, vertically printed samples, was 3.5x higher for ESD-PEKK compared to Ultem (16 MPa vs. 4 MPa). All samples tested could be fitted with a power-law relationship, and each material showed low variability within their power-law exponents. This article discusses the performance of ESD-PEKK and Ultem 9085 and their potential use as aerospace and defense-grade polymers.