On Wear Properties of 3D Printed Hybrid Blended PLA Composite

Abstract

The fused deposition modeling (FDM) of poly(lactic)acid (PLA) matrix reinforced with foreign particles such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), magnetite (Fe3O4) powder and wood powder in single composite matrix has been explored for structural and non structural applications such as for 3D printing of tiles with self assembly characteristics. But hither to very less has been reported on wear behavior of 3D printed pins of hybrid PLA matrix for rapid tooling applications. Therefore an effort has been made on wear analysis of hybrid matrix of PLA by reinforcing PVC (25 wt%), Fe3O4 powder (20 wt%) and wood powder (5 wt%). From feasibility study it has been observed that the developed matrix of PLA can be successfully prepared for in-house feedstock development and can be further used on FDM platform to 3D print the cuboid shape (Size: 45×10×10 mm) based pins for rapid tooling applications. The optimization study for input process parameters of FDM suggests that the density of 3D printed sample was the only significant parameter which played vital role in controlling the wear characteristics of hybrid matrix of PLA. Further optimization study has revealed that infill density of 3rd level (100%), infill angle of 3rd level (90°) and infill speed of 2nd level (70 mm/min) were the optimized parameters for 3D printing of cubiodal pins. The wear graph of tested sample suggest that for sample 3D printed with experimental conditions of S.No.1 (as per Table 1) has shown highest wear rate of 890 mm and 3D printing conditions of S.No.8 (as per Table 1) exhibited least wear rate 450 mm.