Mechanical properties of FDM printed objects as a function of the printing parameters

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) three-dimensional (3D) printing is one of the most widespread technologies in the field of additive manufacturing to fabricate objects, prototypes or products starting from a virtual 3D model created by CAD software[1][2]. This printing technique allows to create a 3D object by adding extruded thermoplastic material layer by layer. The obtained products are characterized by an anisotropic behaviour[3]. Compared to those obtained through conventional production techniques, FDM 3D objects are generally less performing from the point of view of mechanical properties[4]. For this reason, they are mostly used as prototyping products and not as structural materials. In this work, the experimental activity was aimed at understanding the influence of printing parameters on the mechanical properties of samples made with FDM technology. The variation of the printing parameters was investigated to obtain an improvement of the mechanical properties of the samples. In fact, the effect of the optimization of the printing parameters on the mechanical properties allows to extend the field of applicability of the objects obtained, making the objects suitable for both functional and structural purposes