Effect of build orientation on tribological and flexural properties of FDM-printed composite PLA parts

In the study, parts are fused deposition modeling-printed using polylactic acid filaments filled with copper, brass, bronze, tungsten, and carbon fiber. Wear and three-point bending tests are applied to FDM-printed specimens and it is yielded that on-edge oriented specimens had higher flexural strength while flat orientation contributed to wear resistance. Wear tracks are examined, and mostly abrasive wear is detected in the dry sliding condition while adhesive, fatigue and abrasive wear is observed in the wet sliding condition. Brass -filled polylactic acid specimens showed highest flexural strength and flexural modulus with 46.73 MPa and 1.53 GPa, respectively. Besides, the most wear resistant filler is determined as tungsten for dry and wet sliding conditions.

Automated summary

In this study, FDM-printed specimens were made using polylactic acid filaments filled with copper, brass, bronze, tungsten, and carbon fiber. The results showed that on-edge oriented specimens had higher flexural strength, while flat orientation contributed to wear resistance. Abrasive wear was observed in the dry sliding condition, while adhesive, fatigue, and abrasive wear were observed in the wet sliding condition. The brass-filled specimens showed the highest flexural strength and flexural modulus, while tungsten was determined to be the most wear resistant filler.