Investigation on the relationship between printing parameters and strength of polymer parts through additive manufacturing process

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM), is a popular fabrication technique that gives rise to mass manufacturing of complex shape products that cannot be easily done by a normal machining method. This report will investigate the properties of the sample built by multi-jet fusion (MJF) which is an additive manufacturing technique. This report analyzes how the location and orientation affect the glass transition temperature (Tg) and degree of crystallinity of the printed sample. Samples were printed using PA 12 powder and were tested for their degree of crystallinity and Tg using a dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) and Differential Calorimetry Scanning (DSC) respectively. The results showed that the crystallinity of the top layer of the MJF chamber is heavily affected by the airflow and hence affecting the Tg of the sample. The orientation of the sample has no significant impact on the Tg. Through this report, a better understanding of how the placement of the sample inside the MJF chamber affects its crystallinity and Tg