Tensile analysis of 3D printer filaments

Abstract

The objective of this work is the mechanical characterization of materials produced by 3D printing based on Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM®). The materials chosen are various poly(lactic acid) (PLA) bases reinforced with another material (e. g. glass fiber, metal powder, ….) in different weight fractions. In view of the FDM technique, producing specimens layer by layer and following predefined orientations, the main assumption considered is that the materials behave similarly to laminates formed by orthotropic layers. Great emphasis must be put on the selection of the appropriate quality filaments, therefore first the material properties of the fibers were examined. Following tensile strength tests, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed to observe fracture surfaces. It was clear from the microstructure of the filaments that the morphology of the fibers are material dependent. This difference as well as the diverse types of the fibers explains the variability in material properties among the test materials examined.

A Review on Reinforcement Methods for Polymeric Materials Processed Using Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)

“…A refining process can be conducted by re-blending the filament, so that a filament with a higher bulk density can be achieved [28]. Up to recently, several types of fibers have been used as the reinforcement filler in the SFR method, for instance, carbon fiber [18,28], jute fiber [51], glass fiber [52][53][54], and graphene [20]. Table 2 shows the recent progress in research applying the SFR method in FFF processing.…”

“…However, material embrittlement could also occur as a result of glass fiber addition, as indicated by the decreased value of the material elongation-at-break from 220 to 10%. In the case of FFF-processed PLA, however, the addition of 15 wt% of glass fiber could only increase the UTS by 2.2%, indicating that the PLA did not bind well to the glass fibers [54]. Meanwhile, the addition of 30 wt% of glass fiber into polypropylene (PP) was able to enhance the tensile strength and modulus of this material by 40% and 30%, respectively [53].…”

Process Design and Parameters Interaction in Material Extrusion 3D Printing: A Review

“…The intrinsically limited strength and dimension stability of the fabricated FFF plastics pushed toward developing fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) 3D printed components via FFF. Additions of various reinforcement kinds have been investigated to improve the static mechanical properties: glass fibers [ 76 , 77 , 78 ], carbon fibers [ 79 , 80 ], or powders [ 81 , 82 ] (e.g., metals or metal-oxides). Fibers can be short or continuous [ 77 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 ].…”

Polymer Filament Process Parameter Optimization with Mechanical Test and Morphology Analysis

“…Also, in this research paper, the ASTM D638 design.STL (Standard Triangle Language) file is sliced by flash print Magic 5.0 slicing software. Of these, 7 fabrication parameters of each set like extruder temperature, layer height, printing speed [21], travel speed, and infill (density/ pattern) [22] were modified and production started separately. Table 1 describes all the modified set of printing parameters.…”