Experimental study of PLA thermal behavior during fused filament fabrication

Hamid Reza Vanaei (1, 2) , Mohammadali Shirinbayan (1) , Sidonie Fernandes Costa (3) , Fernando Moura Duarte (4) , José António Covas (4) , Michael Deligant (2) , Sofiane Khelladi (2) , Abbas Tcharkhtchi (1)

1 PIMM - Laboratoire Procédés et Ingénierie en Mécanique et Matériaux
2 LIFSE - Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Fluides et des Systèmes Énergétiques
3 Polytechnic Institute of Porto
4 Universidade do Minho = University of Minho [Braga]

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is an additive manufacturing technique that is used to produce prototypes and a gradually more important processing route to obtain final products. Due to the layer-by-layer deposition mechanism involved, bonding between adjacent layers is controlled by the thermal energy of the material being printed, which strongly depends on the temperature development of the filaments during the deposition sequence. This study reports experimental measurements of filament temperature during deposition. These temperature profiles were compared to the predictions made by a previously developed model. The two sets of data showed good agreement, particularly concerning the occurrence of reheating peaks when new filaments are deposited onto previously deposited ones. The developed experimental technique is shown to demonstrate its sensitivity to changing operating conditions, namely platform temperature and deposition velocity. The data generated can be valuable to predict more accurately the bond quality achieved in FFF parts.

Mots clés: manufacturing; thermal properties; thermoplastics

Domaines: Matériaux; Génie mécanique [physics.class-ph]; Polymères

Hamid Reza Vanaei, Mohammadali Shirinbayan, Sidonie Fernandes Costa, Fernando Moura Duarte, José António Covas, et al.. Experimental study of PLA thermal behavior during fused filament fabrication. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2021, 138 (4), pp.49747. ⟨10.1002/app.49747⟩. ⟨hal-03164728⟩