Abstract
Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is one of the most commonly used additive manufacturing technologies. However, the applied material for commercial FFF is limited. Presently, though being one of the most used polymer materials, polypropylene (PP) is rarely used in FFF because of its serious warpage and shrinkage problems. This study investigated the impact of addition of short glass fibers (GF) and ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) on the printability of polypropylene random copolymer (PPR) based FFF and mechanical properties of the printed samples, as well as other properties including rheology, thermal behaviors, and morphology. The results show that the modified PPR has excellent printability, as the printed samples are of good geometrical accuracy. The addition of GF can significantly improve the strength and modulus of the composite, but it also leads to serious decrease in toughness. EPDM addition can effectively improve the toughness of the composite, showing a complementary effect with GF. This work has important meaning in expanding the FFF applicable material and in broadening the application of PP.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing (AM), known as 3D-printing technology or rapid prototyping technology, has been developing rapidly since it was first proposed in 1986 [1,2] because of its unique advantages
AM has developed into different types [8–11], including selective laser sintering (SLS), stereolithography (SLA), Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM), and fused filament fabrication (FFF), etc
A thermoplastic filament with uniform diameter, which is used as the printing material, is fed into a heated extrusion head
Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM), known as 3D-printing technology or rapid prototyping technology, has been developing rapidly since it was first proposed in 1986 [1,2] because of its unique advantages. AM allows for more customized characteristics and can significantly simplify the process of prototyping, making the production more efficient [3]. It has little raw material waste in production [4] and, it is eco-friendly. A thermoplastic filament with uniform diameter, which is used as the printing material, is fed into a heated extrusion head. It melts and is pushed out of a nozzle. The printed object is modeled with the superimposition of layers Materials such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA) are commonly used for commercial FFF production [17,18]. FFF still has an unignorable problem: some polymers, such as polyolefin, are barely used for commercial FFF despite their ideal properties and broad applications
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