Abstract
Polypropylene (PP) parts produced by means of extrusion-based additive manufacturing, also known as fused filament fabrication, are prone to detaching from the build platform due to their strong tendency to shrink and warp. Apart from incorporating high volume fractions of fillers, one approach to mitigate this issue is to improve the adhesion between the first deposited layer and the build platform. However, a major challenge for PP is the lack of adhesion on standard platform materials, as well as a high risk of welding on PP-based platform materials. This study reports the material selection of build platform alternatives based on contact angle measurements. The adhesion forces, investigated by shear-off measurements, between PP-based filaments and the most promising platform material, an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE), were optimised by a thorough parametric study. Higher adhesion forces were measured by increasing the platform and extrusion temperatures, increasing the flow rate and decreasing the thickness of the first layer. Apart from changes in printer settings, an increased surface roughness of the UHMW-PE platform led to a sufficient, weld-free adhesion for large-area parts of PP-based filaments, due to improved wetting, mechanical interlockings, and an increased surface area between the two materials in contact.
Highlights
Fused filament fabrication (FFF), known as fused deposition modelling (FDMTM ), is the most common type of extrusion-based additive manufacturing or material extrusion [1]
It is evident for FFF that the strategy of printing PP-based filaments onto PP build platforms implies the risk of welding between the two contact partners [33,34], due to their comparable polar and disperse fractions [30]
In materials on PP-surfaces, and concurrently suggests an ideal substitution of the build platform by materials on PP-surfaces, and concurrently suggests an ideal substitution of the PP build platform by. These were selected based a similar interfacial compared to the were selected based on a on similar interfacial tension tension compared to the standard standard filament material
Summary
Fused filament fabrication (FFF), known as fused deposition modelling (FDMTM ), is the most common type of extrusion-based additive manufacturing or material extrusion [1]. The technique is based on the selective deposition of thermoplastic filaments, which are transported by counter-rotating driving wheels through a nozzle that moves according to a predefined contour [2]. The equipment used in FFF is relatively inexpensive, compared to other additive manufacturing technologies, and is safe and simple to operate [4]. All of these reasons have contributed to the increased popularity of FFF. Its main advantage is the rapid and economical reproduction of customised components without design constraints with a variety of polymeric materials [5]
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