Investigation of the feasibility of 3D printing high filler concentration polymer composites using a commercial SLA 3D printer

Abstract

Stereolithography (SLA) is a 3D printing process that falls under the category of vat photopolymerization. SLA method uses UV laser as a light source to precisely cure polymer resin layer by layer. Conventionally, SLA 3D printing technique is used to print polymer. However, in the recent years, the printing of composites using SLA technique has been gaining attention and has been broadly investigated with various experiments. This could be due to the fact that this technique is more economically viable because of the low cost of SLA 3D printers. This study investigates the feasibility of printing polymer composites using SLA technique with high concentration of aluminum metal fillers at 15 vol%. The shapes and sizes that were feasible to print were also determined, and it was found that the composite samples were unable to print beyond a certain layer. Finally, this study investigates the reasons as to why the printed composite samples were unable to fully achieve their intended heights.