Mechanical Properties and Assessment of PLA Mixed with Carbon by Using Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Abstract: Three-dimensional (3D) printing is an additive manufacturing process that creates a physical object from a digital design. The process works by laying down thin layers of material in the form of liquid or powered plastic, metal or cement, and then fusing the layers together. Fused deposition modelling has gained much attention in recent years, as it revolutionizes the rapid manufacturing of customized polymer-based composite components. To facilitate the engineering applications of these fused deposition modelling printed components, understanding their basic mechanical behaviours is necessary. In this project, the mechanical characteristics, including tensile, hardness and impact properties of samples fabricated by fused deposition modelling with different additives, i.e. wood, ceramic, copper, aluminium and carbon fibres, based polylactic acid composites are comprehensively investigated. The effects of different polylactic composites, build orientations and raster angles on mechanical responses are compared and analysed in detail. In this study, We investigate the mechanical properties such as Tensile strength, Impact strength, and Hardness of three dimensional (3D) Carbon mixed with PLA (polylactic acid) filament. The specimen are made using FDM method. The blend ratio of PLA and the carbon additive is chosen as 8:2 in this Project, which is believed to have the effectively modified mechanical properties compared to the pure PLA. For each printing orientation, two kinds of printing paths are designed with parameter of raster angles , Infill Density , Speed .