Vacuum fused deposition modelling system to improve tensile strength of 3D printed parts

Abstract

Functional parts require high a level of strength and the current Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) cannot be fully utilized as the end used parts. The poor mechanical strength is caused by the incomplete layer bonding during the printing process. In the printing process, the interlayer bonding is made too quick thus the layers are not fully fused together causing the reduced tensile strength. This paper presents a possible solution to this problem by incorporating vacuum technology in FDM system to improve tensile strength of 3D printed specimens. In this study, a desktop FDM machine was placed and operated inside a low pressure vacuum chamber. The results obtained show an improvement of 12.83 % of tensile strength compared to the standard specimen. This paper concludes that the low pressure environment is useful in reducing the heat loss due to convection of air, hence directly improves the specimen's tensile strength.

Optimisation of Strength Properties of FDM Printed Parts—A Critical Review

“…In this section, the current research trends will be discussed such a vacuum-assisted FDM, advances in materials, and new technologies. Maidin et al (2017aMaidin et al ( , 2017bMaidin et al ( , 2018 [113][114][115] have shown that vacuum in the printing chamber improved the quality of the printing due to the decrease of heat transfer from the nozzle and hence providing a smooth and slow decrease of the temperature of the polymer that improved the bonding between the layers. The pressure in the chamber was gradually reduced from 30 inHg (or 760 mmHg of normal atmospheric pressure, however, the authors used inches of Hg) to 21 inHg (533.4 mmHg).…”

Dimensional accuracy of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and polylactic acid samples printed in vacuum-assisted material extrusion system

“…Removing the rapid cooling that led to tension and distortion is possible. Compared to non-vacuum bonding, the bonding formation between each layer resulting from the heat energy of semi-molten ABS material was more efficient and superior, increasing the dimensional accuracy of the samples [37].…”

Study and characterization of mechanical properties of wood-PLA composite (Timberfill) material parts built through fused filament fabrication

“…The optima parameters for the FFF process with ABS under the analyzed conditions were 50 mm/s for the scanning speed, 80 °C for the molding chamber temperature of, and 180 °C for the nozzle temperature, respectively. Courter, B. et al [65], have simulated the FFF process by the commercial finite element software package Abaqus. A Mobius arm part is used to illustrate the simulation procedure and a sequentially coupled thermo-mechanical analysis is performed.…”

“…These results indicate that the mechanical properties of PEEK parts are superior to ABS parts. Also several researchers considered different mechanical behaviors of parts fabricated through another different manufacturing technologies [40,64,74], and different treatments on the raw materials and building conditions [38,65,75, 76], to achieve higher resistances of mechanical properties, many contradictions still need to be considered, including the high costs associated with these commercial machines, their material restrictions, and the difficulty to study process parameters [86].…”