Additive manufacturing (AM) is increasingly in industry with a worldwide market, for AM products and services, estimated to grow to over $5 billion by 2020 [1]. AM is accepted not for prototyping only but for functional parts too [2], and the filament based technology referred as the Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is one the most widely used. In FDM thermoplastic filaments, for both model and support, are fed into the heated extrusion print head enabling 3D dispensing of the resulting polymer melts on a platform, which is lowered step by step once each object’s layer is completed. Layer by layer the object is then printed. FDM process is controlled by both material filament type and machine setting (like for instance: nozzle diameter and temperature, bed temperature, raster angle etc.), thus the knowledge of the influence of material properties and the printing settings on the properties of printed parts is of paramount importance to further expand the use of FDM [3,4]. The relevance of the bond quality between adjacent filaments depends on printing parameters, but, also, on the melt viscosity of the polymer used for the filaments [5]. Therefore, a major point deserving for a more detailed analysis is the study of the melting behavior of polymer in FDM processing. In this work we tried to answer how thermal analysis can be used to study the behavior of polymer melts during FDM processing to rationalize its effect on printing quality.

The role of thermal analysis in improving 3D printing quality

Ignazio Blanco
;
GIANLUCA CICALA;ANTONINO RECCA
2018-01-01

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is increasingly in industry with a worldwide market, for AM products and services, estimated to grow to over $5 billion by 2020 [1]. AM is accepted not for prototyping only but for functional parts too [2], and the filament based technology referred as the Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is one the most widely used. In FDM thermoplastic filaments, for both model and support, are fed into the heated extrusion print head enabling 3D dispensing of the resulting polymer melts on a platform, which is lowered step by step once each object’s layer is completed. Layer by layer the object is then printed. FDM process is controlled by both material filament type and machine setting (like for instance: nozzle diameter and temperature, bed temperature, raster angle etc.), thus the knowledge of the influence of material properties and the printing settings on the properties of printed parts is of paramount importance to further expand the use of FDM [3,4]. The relevance of the bond quality between adjacent filaments depends on printing parameters, but, also, on the melt viscosity of the polymer used for the filaments [5]. Therefore, a major point deserving for a more detailed analysis is the study of the melting behavior of polymer in FDM processing. In this work we tried to answer how thermal analysis can be used to study the behavior of polymer melts during FDM processing to rationalize its effect on printing quality.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/360779
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