Investigating the mechanical properties of polymer composite materials made by 3D printing method

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Abbas Savabpour
• Javad KadKhodapour
• Ali Pourkamali Anaralki

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shahid Rajaee University, Tehran, Iran

10.22067/jacsm.2023.81972.1182

Abstract

A composite structure is a non-uniform solid that consists of two or more different materials with different kinds that are mechanically bonded together. These structures have completely different chemical and physical properties and they merge together to make a substance that is not similar to any of these materials. In previous studies, the construction and investigation of sandwich structures of polymer materials were done with two materials with similar physical properties (two hard materials), but in this research, two polymers with completely different physical properties were combined and a new sandwich structure was made. This study aims to investigate and try to increase the mechanical performance of single-layer and multi-layer composite (sandwich) structures printed from hard (ABS) and soft (TPU) polymer materials and comparing these samples by preparing different composite structures from these polymers. The method of making polymer materials used in this research is the use of 3D printing technology (incremental layering). The results have been obtained in the form of laboratory tensile test and simulation in the Abaqus software environment. These results indicate that with the change of layers and materials, the amount of strain to failure of the composite samples has increased up to about 4 times. It should be noted that the construction of the tensile test samples in this project was done according to the standard of the American Association of Materials and Testing.

Keywords

• Mechanical properties
• Composite Materials
• 3D Printing
• ABS
• TPU

Main Subjects

• Solid mechanics

---

References

 [1] https://idesign3d.ir/

[2] https://all3dp.com/

[3] "Overcoming 3D printing speed limitations of flexible soft plastics with Arnitel® ID," [Online]. Available: Link: https://www.dsm.com/content/dam/dsm/engineering-materials/ja-jp/documents/Arnitel_ID_3D_printing.pdf.

[4] J. Zeb Gul, M. Sajid, M. Muqeet Rehman, Gh. Uddin Siddiqui, I. Shah, K. Kim, J. Lee, K. Hyun Choi, "3D printing for soft robotics – a review," Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 243–262, 2018.

[5] F. Rosa, M. Bordegoni, A. Dentelli, A. Sanzone, A. Sotgiu, "Print-in-Place of Interconnected Deformable and Rigid Parts of Articulated Systems," Procedia Manufacturing, vol. 11, pp. 555 – 562, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2017.07.149

[6] M. Soreni-Harari, R. St. Pierre, C. McCue, K. Moreno, S. Bergbreiter , "Multimaterial 3D Printing for Microrobotic Mechanisms," SOFT ROBOTICS, 2019.  https://doi.org/10.1089/soro.2018.0147

[7] R. R. Torrealba, S. B. Udelman, A. J. Rivas, F. J. Carvalho, "A start-up project to create customised 3D-printed hand prostheses affordable in developing countries," ResearchGate, 2017.

[8] R. Melnikova, A. Ehrmann, K. Finsterbusch, "3D printing of textile-based structures by Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) with different polymer materials," Global Conference on Polymer and Composite Materials, (2014). https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/62/1/012018

[9] J. Kwon, J. Ock, N. Kim, "Mimicking the Mechanical Properties of Aortic Tissue with Pattern-Embedded 3D Printing for a Realistic Phantom," Materials (Basel), vol. 13, no.21, 2020.

[10] D. Yadav, D. Chhabra, R. Kumar Garg, A. Ahlawat, A. Phogat, "Optimization of FDM 3D printing process parameters for multi-material using artificial neural network," Materials Today: Proceedings, 2019.

[11] L.R. Lopes, A.F. Silva, O.S. Carneiro, "Multi-Material 3D Printing: the Relevance of Materials Affinity on the Boundary Interface Performance," Additive Manufacturing, vol. 23, pp. 45-52, 2018.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2018.06.027

[12] D. Baca, R. Ahmad, "The impact on the mechanical properties of multi-material polymers fabricated with a single mixing nozzle and multi-nozzle systems via fused deposition modeling,", The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, pp. 4509-4520, 2020.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-04937-3

 [13] F. Feng, L. Ye, "Morphologies and Mechanical Properties of Polylactide/ Thermoplastic Polyurethane Elastomer Blends," Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2010. DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/app.32863

[14] Shabana, R.V.Nikhil Santosh, J. Sarojini, K.Arun Vikram, V.V.K.Lakshmi,  "Evaluating the Mechanical Properties of Commonly Used 3d Printed ABS and PLA Polymers with Multi Layered Polymers," International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT), vol.8, no.6, 2019.

[15] M. Shamaas, "Introduction to 3D Printer", ResearchGate, (2022).

[16] https://elsapaco.com/

[17] F. Beer, E. R. Johnston, Jr., J. DeWolf, D. Mazurek, Mechanics of Materials, 2011.