Investigating inexpensive polymeric 3D printed materials under extreme thermal conditions

Abstract

3D printing is nowadays used for many applications far beyond pure rapid prototyping. As tools to prepare custom-made objects which may be highly complex, different 3D printing techniques have emerged into areas of application where the mechanical, thermal, optical and other properties have to meet high requirements. Amongst them, applications for space, e.g. for microsatellites, make extreme demands regarding the stability under high temperatures. Nevertheless, polymeric 3D printed materials have several advantages for space application in comparison with metal objects. Here we thus investigate the impact of temperatures up to 85 °C and 185 °C, respectively, on typical 3D printing materials for fused deposition modeling (FDM) or stereolithography (SLA). The materials are found to differ strongly in terms of mechanical properties and dimensional stability after the treatment at higher temperature, with SLA resins and co-polyester (CPE) showing the best dimensional stability, while acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and SLA resin after long UV post-treatment have the best mechanical properties.

Investigation of Low-Cost FDM-Printed Polymers for Elevated-Temperature Applications

“…In the first screening, thermal treatment was performed at temperatures of 100 °C or 140 °C, depending on the results of the previous tests [ 26 ] and information from the filament producers about maximum temperatures, i.e., 100 °C for all PLA samples and Carbon Fill and 140 °C for ABS, HIPS and all other PETG samples (including HDglass). Figure 1 shows the results of the dimensional stability tests.…”

“…Half of the samples were afterwards thermally post-treated at the cold crystallization temperature, while the other half were used as printed. Cold crystallization is a typical post-treatment often used for PLA and other FDM printing materials since the fast cooling of the molten polymer during FDM printing reduces crystallization [ 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

“…In a previous paper [26], we investigated several materials processible on common low-cost FDM and additionally stereolithography (SLA) printers with respect to their dimensional stability and mechanical properties after slow cycles (average heating/cooling rates of 10 K/h) between −15 • C and +85 • C or +185 • C, respectively. While only ABS and one of the SLA-printed materials could withstand a temperature of 185 • C without a significant decrease in the maximum force in three-point bending tests, high-temperature poly(lactic acid) (HT-PLA) could withstand 85 • C without problems, suggesting more tests with different PLA materials.…”

New Research Trends for Textiles

“…This technique allows producing complex structures using a computer-controlled layer-by-layer process and has been proposed for the rapid manufacturing of N95 masks and other medical PPE, when in high demand, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic [45]. Researchers have explored the possibility of using inexpensive 3D-printed polymers for applications at high temperatures [181]. Among the polymers tested, stereolithography resins showed the best thermal stability to 185 • C and the best mechanical properties upon UV post-treatment.…”

“…Besides aluminum, this product also contains phosphorous in small amounts. The phosphorous is probably added to prevent the unintended oxidation of aluminum on the metal surface, which would decrease the reflectivity drastically [181,182].…”