Effect of layer thickness and print orientation on strength of 3D printed and adhesively bonded single lap joints

Three-dimensional printing is the common name given to various techniques used to manufacture different objects. Fused deposition technique is a commonly used additive manufacturing technology in prototyping and production. Fused deposition modelling systems are limited in terms of shape and size of parts. Printing parts with less support material, for parts too large to print in a single operation or for parts with fine details, sectioning and adhesively bonding is the solution for manufacturing. According to adhesion theory, the strength of adhesively bonding between three-dimensional printed parts is affected by surface roughness. Effects of layer thickness and print orientation on adhesion strength of parts manufactured with three-dimensional printing were experimentally studied. As a result of the study, it was found that the edgewise orientation had the highest bonding strength in lower layer thicknesses, while flatwise orientation had the highest bonding strength in higher layer thicknesses.