Comparison of FDM-printed and compression molded tensile samples

Since the processing of plastics by additive manufacturing techniques, for example, fused deposition modeling, has become quite common, it is mainly used for the production of unique pieces for private consumption as well as for prototyping in industry. In order to professionally manufacture plastic components in large amounts, due to time, cost, and quality factors, injection molding is more suitable. Nevertheless, it is of great interest to print plastic parts in small batch series for technical tasks. In this paper, FDM-produced tensile samples, made from 16 materials, printed in three orientations, are compared to compression molded components. In addition to ordinary filaments, composite materials with metal-, carbon-, wood-, and stone-additives are also examined. While some cavities emerged in both printed and molded samples, the results support the hypothesis that the mechanical properties depend on the components' densities.