Effect of infill percentage and pattern on compressive behavior of FDM-printed GF-CF PA6 composites

Abstract

Abstract. The present paper aims to assess the effect of different infill percentages and patterns on the compressive mechanical properties of specimens in Polyamide PA6 reinforced with 20% glass fibers (GF) and 10% carbon fibers (CF) printed using the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology. According to the ASTM D695-15 standard, cylindrical specimens were designed and processed through slicing software, configuring infill percentages and patterns. Three different typologies of infill pattern and two infill percentages were considered: a 100% grid infill, a 50% grid infill, a 100% concentric infill and a 50% honeycomb infill were printed. Then, compression tests were performed at room temperature to evaluate the properties of the different specimens. The comparison between the stress-strain compression curves has shown that the infill percentages and patterns significantly affect the mechanical compression properties of 3D printed components.