The results of research of physical and mechanical properties of commercially available in the Russian market composite filaments based on ABS, nylon and polyurethane polymers with addition of discrete fillers such as glass (GF) and carbon (CF) with their different percentages are presented. Tensile tests were performed on the samples produced by layer-by-layer deposition (FDM) with different orientation of layer layup direction of 0° (horizontal) and 90° (vertical). It was observed that the printing strategy of horizontally oriented specimens created interlayer weaknesses that caused their failure during testing. It was found that vertically printed specimens were inferior to horizontally printed specimens in strength and generally in ductility. The exception is GF-30% polyurethane, which demonstrated higher strength and stiffness in the horizontal orientation but lower ductility compared to the vertically printed specimens. Glass-filled nylon CF-20% proved to be an unstable material as evidenced by the high coefficient of variation of its parameters. ABS CF-12% specimens showed minimal differences between vertical and horizontal orientations, but the vertical modulus of elasticity was characterized by a high coefficient of variation. The experimental results emphasize the need for careful selection of print and material orientation depending on the required mechanical performance.
Babaytsev et al. (Wed,) studied this question.