LAUSR

Abstract The buckling criterion for 3D printed metal materials is studied experimentally in this paper. Several metal columns are manufactured using a laser concept 3D printer using different sample orientations. The maximum length of the specimens is limited to 90 mm. A standard buckling test is designed using pin-ended struts. The applied compressive force is measured versus the vertical displacement for all specimens. The critical force for each thickness and printing orientation is obtained by averaging the results obtained from five specimens for each case. It is observed that the buckling capacity of the 3D printed metal struts is strongly influenced by the printing direction. It can be concluded that, for these structures, buckling is a dominant behavior and the printing direction needs to be considered during the design process.