Investigations into the effect of thermal annealing on fused filament fabrication process

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ABSTRACT

The mechanical properties of fused filament-fabricated specimens are the primary considerations of researchers. Process parameters have a significant impact on the mechanical strength of 3D-printed parts. In this work, the effect of process variables such as infill volume, pattern, layer height, nozzle temperature, and print speed on tensile and compressive strength of polylactic acid samples are investigated. The maximum tensile strength of 27.87 MPa was obtained at 90% infill density for gyroid pattern of a layer thickness of 0.1 mm at a nozzle temperature of 220°C and print speed of 30 mm/s. The maximum compressive strength of 38.21 MPa was achieved at 90% infill density for the triangle pattern of a layer thickness of 0.1 mm at a nozzle temperature of 220°C and print speed of 30 mm/s. Thermal annealing as a post processing method to enhance the mechanical properties is also explored. The effect of annealing temperatures 65°C, 95°C and 125°C and time 30, 60 and 120 minutes on mechanical strength were studied. Ultimate tensile strength showed an improvement of 25.26% to achieve 34.91 MPa whereas compressive strength increased by 21.87% to give 46.57 MPa strength.

KEYWORDS:

• Thermal annealing
• process parameters
• ultimate tensile strength
• compressive strength
• fused filament fabrication
• polylactic acid

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Principal and Head of Mechanical Engineering Department, Government College of Engineering Kannur for the facilities provided to carry out research. The authors would like to thank Dr. Sneha Mohan Bhagyaraj, Research Assistant, Centre for Advanced Materials, Qatar University for the sincere support throughout the work.

The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University for funding this work through Research Project under grant number: R.G.P.1/238/41.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research, King Khalid University [R.G.P.1/238/41].