Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

2023

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Todd Letcher

Abstract

3D printing is also known as additive manufacturing (AM) which has become a popular manufacturing trend over the years. Due to its unique advantages of fast production rate, ability to create complex geometrical features, toolless manufacturing and many more attracts various industries from Aerospace to general cosmetics. Along with the advancement in material science, various polymers including Polylactic Acid (PLA), Polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) and many more are available for 3D printing. Due to the wide range of applications in PLA, it is necessary to improve its toughness to make it more suitable by adding Poly Cyclohexylenedimethylene Terephthalate glycol (PCTG) elastomer in PLA which can be effective to improve it. In the present study, the mechanical properties of PETG and PCTG polymers have been derived from different mechanical testing to understand the material behavior. All the polymer samples for mechanical testing was printed using Fused Deposition Method (FDM) which is the most popular 3D printing strategy. The mechanical testing used in current study to evaluate material properties include Tensile Testing, Compression Testing, Impact Testing and Flexure Testing. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) was also performed to evaluate compound analysis of PCTG polymer. The properties obtained after test conduct such as Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS), Yield Strength (YS), Elastic Modulus (E), Elongation, Impact energy are evaluated and compared. Temperature has a significant impact on mechanical properties of polymeric materials. Thus, in Chapter 2, we have conducted all mechanical testing on PETG polymer samples at different temperatures in range between 230oC to 270 oC with increment of 10 oC to understand behavior of PETG with temperature variation. Along with temperature, printing parameters such as nozzle temperature, raster orientation, print speed, bed temperature, also different manufacturing brands can affect the mechanical properties of polymer. In Chapter 3, we have given this parametric impact on mechanical properties of PCTG polymer. Two different manufactured PCTG filaments (Lodesign and Essentium) were printed at 260° C of the nozzle temperature, 75°C bed temperature, a print speed of 40 mm/s, raster orientation of 45°, and a nozzle size of 0.4 mm. The annealing was also performed on Essentium sample at 100°C before mechanical testing to study the heat treatment impact on mechanical properties.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Three-dimensional printing.
Polymers -- Mechanical properties -- Evaluation.
Polyethylene.
Plastics.

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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Rights Statement

In Copyright