Extensive Analysis of the mechanical strength properties of Fused Deposition Modeling Parts manufactured with ULTEM 9085

Generative production techniques have the advantage of manufacturing parts via an additive process without needing a forming tool. One of these additive manufacturing technologies is “Fused Deposition Modeling” (FDM). It is one of the most used additive manufacturing processes to produce prototypes and end-use parts. From a 3D-CAD data set, components and assemblies are manufactured out of thermoplastic material layer by layer by means of an additive process. An extrusion head deposits the molten thermoplastic filament to create each layer with a particular tool path. In this paper the mechanical data of parts, manufactured with the system Fortus 400mc from Stratasys with the material Ultem*9085 are presented. Tensile specimens are generated with the standard parameters as well as with changed parameters of the native software to analyze the influence of these parameters on the mechanical strength properties. The tensile tests show different strength and strain characteristics that depend on the given structure and as a result of the build direction. Furthermore the toolpath parameters have an effect on the strength characteristics and the break behavior. In addition, tensile specimens are tested under the influence of different temperatures and after a thermal cycling.