Effects of Printing Temperature and Filling Percentage on the Mechanical Behavior of Fused Deposition Molding Technology Components for 3D Printing

• Main Authors: Ming-Hsien Hsueh, Chao-Jung Lai, Kuan-Yin Liu, Cheng-Feng Chung, Shi-Hao Wang, Chieh-Yu Pan, Wen-Chen Huang, Chia-Hsin Hsieh, Yu-Shan Zeng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
• Series: Polymers
• Subjects: polylactic acid; 3D printing; printing temperature; filling percentage; mechanical properties; fused deposition modeling
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/13/17/2910

Additive manufacturing (AM) has the advantages of providing materials with lightweight microporous structures and customized features, and being environmentally safe. It is widely used in medical sciences, the aerospace industry, biological research, engineering applications, and other fields. Among the many additive manufacturing methods, fused deposition modeling (FDM) is relatively low-cost, wastes less raw material and has a lower technical threshold. This paper presents a study on 3D printing based on FDM by changing two printing parameters, namely the printing temperature and filling percentage. The produced polylactic acid (PLA) material was analyzed through tensile and Shore D hardness tests and the differences in mechanical properties before and after the UV curing process were analyzed. The results show that increasing the filling percentage or increasing the printing temperature can effectively improve the tensile Young’s modulus, ultimate tensile strength, elongation, and Shore hardness of the material. The UV curing process could enhance the rigidity and hardness of the material significantly but reduced the strength and toughness of the material. These findings could benefit researchers studying FDM with the goal of achieving sustainable manufactured materials.