Experimental investigation of process parameters in polyether ether ketone 3D printing

Abstract

In the past two decades, polyether ether ketone (PEEK) has been vastly used in different industries such as automotive, aerospace, and medical sectors due to its mechanical strength, high heat stability, and excellent chemical resistance. Since this semi-crystalline polymer has a high melting temperature, the standard procedure to select extrusion-based 3D printing working parameters has many challenges to ensure each bespoke product with the best quality. Slight shift from optimum process parameters in fused deposition modeling (FDM) of PEEK has a remarkable impact on the final product quality. The present research addresses the long-standing problem of selecting a working setup quickly and accurately which is not dependent on the user's knowledge. In this article, to identify the best arrangement of FDM process parameters, an orthogonal matrix of Taguchi Design of Experiments (DoEs) is applied. Different values of bed, chamber, and nozzle temperatures, print speed, and layer thickness were thoroughly examined for the printing of standard tensile specimens. The mechanical properties and the fracture morphology of samples are examined in different printing conditions to explore a roadmap tool for designing better process parameters which satisfy mechanical requirements of products. In this study, the interpretation of the experimental results is investigated based on analysis of variance (ANOVA). The obtained results show that the best working set up for nozzle temperature, bed temperature, print speed, and layer thickness are 415°C, 160°C, 50 mm s−1, and 0.2 mm, respectively. This article consists of five sections. After introduction in the first section, the effects of working parameters on the strength of final fused products are investigated in Experimental setup section. The results and the confirmation test are considered in seperate sections, respectively. The research is summarized in the conclusion section.