Effects of extruder temperatures and raster orientations on mechanical properties of the FFF-processed polylactic-acid (PLA) material

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of extruder temperatures and raster orientations on the mechanical properties of polylactic-acid (PLA) material processed by using fused filament fabrication (FFF).

In this research, the PLA specimens were first printed with nozzle or extruder temperatures of 205°C, 215°C and 225°C and then evaluated in terms of their physical, chemical and mechanical properties. An appropriate extruder temperature was then selected based on this experiment and used for the printing of the other PLA specimens having various raster orientations. A series of tensile tests were carried out again to investigate the influence of raster orientations on the tensile strength, tensile strain and elastic modulus of those FFF-processed PLA materials. In the end, the one-way ANOVA was applied for the statistical analysis and the Mohr’s circle was established to aid in the analysis of the data obtained in this experiment.

The result of this study shows that the chemistry, porosity, degree of crystallinity and mechanical properties (tensile strength, strain and elastic modulus) of the PLA material printed with a raster angle of 0° were all insensitive to the increasing extruder temperature from 205°C to 225°C. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties of such printed PLA material were obviously influenced by its raster orientation. In this case, a PLA material with a raster orientation parallel to its loading axis, i.e. those with a raster angle of θ = 0°, was found as the strongest material. Meanwhile, the raster configuration-oriented perpendicular to its loading axis or θ = 90° yielded the weakest PLA material. The results of the tensile tests for the PLA material printed with bidirectional raster orientations, i.e. θ = 0°/90° and 45°/−45° demonstrated their strengths with values falling between those of the materials having unidirectional raster θ = 0° and 90°. Furthermore, the result of the analysis by using a well-known Mohr’s circle confirmed the experimental tensile strengths and the failure mechanisms of the PLA material that had been printed with various raster orientations.

This study presented consistent results on the chemistry, physical, degree of crystallinity and mechanical properties of the FFF-processed PLA in responding to the increasing extruder temperature from 205°C to 225°C applied during the printing process. Unlike the results of the previous studies, all these properties were also found to be insensitive to the increase of extruder temperature. Also, the result of this research demonstrates the usability of Mohr’s circle in the analysis of stresses working on an FFF-processed PLA material in responding to the changes in raster orientation printed in this material.