Impact of quasi-isotropic raster layup on the mechanical behaviour of fused filament fabrication parts

The development of fused filament fabrication has extended the range of application of additive manufacturing in various areas of research. However, the mechanical strength of the fused filament fabrication-printed parts were considerably lower than that of parts fabricated by other conventional methods, owing to the observed anisotropic behaviour and formation of voids by weak interlayer diffusion. Intense studies on the effect of design and process parameters of the printed parts on the mechanical properties have been done, whereas studies on the effect of build orientations and raster patterns needs special concern. The main aim of this work is to fabricate parts printed using quasi-isotropic laminate arrangement of rasters, achieved by a raster layup of [45/0/-45/90](s), and to compare their mechanical properties with those of the commonly used 0 degrees/90 degrees (cross) and 45 degrees/-45 degrees (crisscross) raster oriented parts. The quasi-isotropic-oriented samples were observed with improved mechanical behaviour in tensile, compressive, flexural and impact tests compared to the commonly employed raster orientations.