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

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.