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Exit morphology and mechanical property of FDM printed PLA: influence of hot melt extrusion process

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Abstract

In order to study the hot melt extrusion process in fused deposition modeling (FDM), this study mainly explores the effects of printing temperature, heated block length, feeding speed on the exit morphology and mechanical properties of FDM printed Polylactic acid (PLA) samples. High-speed camera is used to capture the exit morphology of molten PLA just extruded to the nozzle. According to exit morphology, the outlet states of extruded molten material can be divided into four categories, namely, bubbled state, coherent state, expanding state, and unstable state. Tensile test results show that printing temperature, heated block length and printing speed have significant influence on tensile properties and fracture mode of FDM printed samples. When the heated block length is 15 mm and 30 mm, there is a ductile-brittle transition in fracture mode with the increase of printing speed. The printing process window under different heated block lengths and printing temperatures has been figured out and the distribution of printing process window under different printing speeds has been discussed. There is a maximum printing process window under the heated block length of 30 mm. This finding provides a frame work for performance prediction of FDM printed parts and theoretical guidance for expanding the scope of printing process window.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11502269 and 11672304), and plan of Beijing Municipal Commission of Science and Technology (Grant No. Z181100003818015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of China

    Yan-Hua Bian, Gang Yu, Shao-Xia Li, Xiu-Li He, Chong-Xin Tian & Zhi-Yong Li

  2. School of Engineering Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Yan-Hua Bian, Gang Yu, Shao-Xia Li, Xiu-Li He, Chong-Xin Tian & Zhi-Yong Li

  3. Research Institute of 3D Printing, Beijing City University, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Yan-Hua Bian & Xin Zhao

  4. Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Gang Yu

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  1. Yan-Hua Bian
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Correspondence to Xiu-Li He or Chong-Xin Tian.

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Bian, YH., Yu, G., Zhao, X. et al. Exit morphology and mechanical property of FDM printed PLA: influence of hot melt extrusion process. Adv. Manuf. 11, 56–74 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40436-022-00405-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40436-022-00405-1

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