A Comparative Experimental Investigation Between Short and Continuous Glass Fiber Reinforced Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene Composites Fabricated by Fused Deposition Modeling

ABSTRACT The limited mechanical performance of 3D‐printed polymers restricts their application in load‐bearing structures. In this study, the mechanical properties of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) reinforced with short glass fibers (SGFs) and continuous glass fibers (CGFs) fabricated by fused deposition modeling (FDM) were experimentally investigated. SGFs‐reinforced composites containing 10, 20, and 30 wt% fibers were printed at raster angles of 0° and 45°/−45°, while CGFs‐reinforced composites with the same fiber contents were printed at a raster angle of 0°. Tensile, flexural, and interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) tests were performed. The results showed that SGFs reinforcement improved the mechanical properties up to 10 wt%, followed by a reduction due to fiber length degradation and weaker interlayer bonding. The highest tensile strength of SGFs‐reinforced composites was 52.1 MPa at 10 wt%, corresponding to an improvement of approximately 39% compared to pure ABS printed at a 0° raster angle. In contrast, CGFs‐reinforced composites exhibited continuous improvement with increasing fiber content. The maximum tensile and flexural strength increases reached approximately 279% and 144%, respectively, at 30 wt% CGFs compared to pure ABS printed at a 0° raster angle. The results demonstrate the superior reinforcing effect of CGFs in FDM‐printed ABS composites.