Proceedings of the XMO Industrial Seminar 2026: Excellence in Manufacturing and Operations
Keywords
Additive manufacturing; tensile testing; carbon fiber; PETG; programmable failure; forced convection
Tracks
MULTIFUNCTIONAL AND RESILIENT DESIGNS FOR MANUFACTURING
DOI
10.5703/1288284318674
Abstract
The tensile properties of 3D printed specimens using fused filament fabrication (FFF) are the subject of extensive research. Forced convection from print cooling fans has been shown to have a measurable effect on print quality and tensile performance because the cooling rate of the polymer strongly controls interlayer adhesion. Print fan speeds are typically kept constant throughout a print, but changing the fan cooling throughout a print has the potential to locally tune interlayer strength and therefore, the location of break. This work shows the effect of selectively cooling printed regions, with the goal of repeatably inducing failure in these areas, by altering the print GCODE to induce tailored fan cooling strategies. Through ASTM D638 tensile testing and pre- and post-tensile test optical profilometry to analyze the samples, we show that fan cooling can be used to induce failure in user-defined regions of a printed sample, introducing a new avenue for customization in FFF parts.
Controllable failure in 3D printed carbon fiber PETG using programmable cooling conditions
The tensile properties of 3D printed specimens using fused filament fabrication (FFF) are the subject of extensive research. Forced convection from print cooling fans has been shown to have a measurable effect on print quality and tensile performance because the cooling rate of the polymer strongly controls interlayer adhesion. Print fan speeds are typically kept constant throughout a print, but changing the fan cooling throughout a print has the potential to locally tune interlayer strength and therefore, the location of break. This work shows the effect of selectively cooling printed regions, with the goal of repeatably inducing failure in these areas, by altering the print GCODE to induce tailored fan cooling strategies. Through ASTM D638 tensile testing and pre- and post-tensile test optical profilometry to analyze the samples, we show that fan cooling can be used to induce failure in user-defined regions of a printed sample, introducing a new avenue for customization in FFF parts.