Development of Laser Polishing As an Auxiliary Post-Process to Improve Surface Quality in Fused Deposition Modeling Parts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Perez Dewey ◽  
Durul Ulutan
Keyword(s):  
Surface Quality ◽  
Fused Deposition Modeling ◽  
Thin Layers ◽  
Process Time ◽  
Laser Polishing ◽  
Fused Deposition ◽  
Post Process ◽  
Deposition Modeling ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Plastic Parts

Laser polishing is a highly effective surface treatment process mainly used on metals and optical components, but it can also be used on plastic parts. It requires no manual labor, can be applied on parts of any size, and produces no hazardous or polluting substances on many plastic parts. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is an additive manufacturing process in which parts are built by extruding thin layers of hot material through a nozzle. It has the advantage of producing complicated part geometries, and the possibility to change a design with no additional cost. This study investigates the use of laser polishing as an auxiliary post-process on Polylactic Acid (PLA) parts produced with FDM to improve the surface quality of final products. Although YAG lasers are commonly used in assisting metal machining processes, a CO2 laser was utilized in this study to post-process 3D-printed parts in order to reduce the staircase appearance. The main purpose of this study is to demonstrate that instead of reducing step size in 3D printing processes, it is possible to use bigger step sizes and laser treat the surface quickly afterwards to decrease the total process time while not compromising from surface quality. Laser speeds of 43–180 mm/s and laser powers of 0.75–3.75 W were tested on blocks of 3D-printed PLA with a parallelogram prism shape at 0.3 mm layer height. By varying laser speed and power, roughness reductions of up to 97% were achieved resulting in a uniform average surface roughness of 2.02 μm. This presents a fast, automatable, and inexpensive auxiliary post-process to FDM.

Biodegradable 3D Printed Polymer Microneedles for Transdermal Drug Delivery

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Luzuriaga ◽  
Danielle R. Berry ◽  
John C. Reagan ◽  
Ronald A. Smaldone ◽  
Jeremiah J. Gassensmith
Keyword(s):  
Drug Delivery ◽  
3D Printing ◽  
Transdermal Drug Delivery ◽  
Fused Deposition Modeling ◽  
Fused Deposition ◽  
Modeling Software ◽  
Deposition Modeling ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Microfabrication Technique ◽  
Mechanical Strengths

Biodegradable polymer microneedle (MN) arrays are an emerging class of transdermal drug delivery devices that promise a painless and sanitary alternative to syringes; however, prototyping bespoke needle architectures is expensive and requires production of new master templates. Here, we present a new microfabrication technique for MNs using fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing using polylactic acid, an FDA approved, renewable, biodegradable, thermoplastic material. We show how this natural degradability can be exploited to overcome a key challenge of FDM 3D printing, in particular the low resolution of these printers. We improved the feature size of the printed parts significantly by developing a post fabrication chemical etching protocol, which allowed us to access tip sizes as small as 1 μm. With 3D modeling software, various MN shapes were designed and printed rapidly with custom needle density, length, and shape. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that our method resulted in needle tip sizes in the range of 1 – 55 µm, which could successfully penetrate and break off into porcine skin. We have also shown that these MNs have comparable mechanical strengths to currently fabricated MNs and we further demonstrated how the swellability of PLA can be exploited to load small molecule drugs and how its degradability in skin can release those small molecules over time.

scholarly journals Controlling magnetic properties of 3D-printed magnetic elastomer structures via fused deposition modeling

AIP Advances ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 025223
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Calascione ◽  
Nathan A. Fischer ◽  
Thomas J. Lee ◽  
Hannah G. Thatcher ◽  
Brittany B. Nelson-Cheeseman
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Properties ◽  
Fused Deposition Modeling ◽  
Fused Deposition ◽  
Deposition Modeling ◽  
3D Printed

scholarly journals Pressure Orientation-Dependent Recovery of 3D-Printed PLA Objects with Varying Infill Degree

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Ehrmann ◽  
Andrea Ehrmann
Keyword(s):  
Shape Memory ◽  
Fused Deposition Modeling ◽  
Static Load ◽  
Shape Memory Polymer ◽  
Applied Pressure ◽  
Poly Lactic Acid ◽  
Fused Deposition ◽  
Deposition Modeling ◽  
Load Tests ◽  
3D Printed

Poly(lactic acid) is not only one of the most often used materials for 3D printing via fused deposition modeling (FDM), but also a shape-memory polymer. This means that objects printed from PLA can, to a certain extent, be deformed and regenerate their original shape automatically when they are heated to a moderate temperature of about 60–100 °C. It is important to note that pure PLA cannot restore broken bonds, so that it is necessary to find structures which can take up large forces by deformation without full breaks. Here we report on the continuation of previous tests on 3D-printed cubes with different infill patterns and degrees, now investigating the influence of the orientation of the applied pressure on the recovery properties. We find that for the applied gyroid pattern, indentation on the front parallel to the layers gives the worst recovery due to nearly full layer separation, while indentation on the front perpendicular to the layers or diagonal gives significantly better results. Pressing from the top, either diagonal or parallel to an edge, interestingly leads to a different residual strain than pressing from front, with indentation on top always firstly leading to an expansion towards the indenter after the first few quasi-static load tests. To quantitatively evaluate these results, new measures are suggested which could be adopted by other groups working on shape-memory polymers.

scholarly journals Mechanical Characterization and Thermodynamic Analysis of Laser-Polished Landscape Design Products Using 3D Printing

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2601
Author(s):  
Yue Ba ◽  
Yu Wen ◽  
Shibin Wu
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
3D Printing ◽  
Fused Deposition Modeling ◽  
High Surface ◽  
Landscape Design ◽  
Laser Polishing ◽  
Fused Deposition ◽  
Design Structure ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Stability And Accuracy

Recent innovations in 3D printing technologies and processes have influenced how landscape products are designed, built, and developed. In landscape architecture, reduced-size models are 3D-printed to replicate full-size structures. However, high surface roughness usually occurs on the surfaces of such 3D-printed components, which requires additional post-treatment. In this work, we develop a new type of landscape design structure based on the fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique and present a laser polishing method for FDM-fabricated polylactic acid (PLA) mechanical components, whereby the surface roughness of the laser-polished surfaces is reduced from over Ra 15 µm to less than 0.25 µm. The detailed results of thermodynamics and microstructure evolution are further analyzed during laser polishing. The stability and accuracy of the results are evaluated based on the standard deviation. Additionally, the superior tensile and flexural properties are examined in the laser-polished layer, in which the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) is increased by up to 46.6% and the flexural strength is increased by up to 74.5% compared with the as-fabricated components. Finally, a real polished landscape model is simulated and optimized using a series of scales.

Development of three-dimensional printing filaments based on poly(lactic acid)/hydroxyapatite composites with potential for tissue engineering

2021 ◽  
pp. 002199832098856
Author(s):  
Marcela Piassi Bernardo ◽  
Bruna Cristina Rodrigues da Silva ◽  
Luiz Henrique Capparelli Mattoso
Keyword(s):  
Tissue Engineering ◽  
Lactic Acid ◽  
Fused Deposition Modeling ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Poly Lactic Acid ◽  
Scanning Calorimetry ◽  
Three Dimensional Printing ◽  
Fused Deposition ◽  
Deposition Modeling ◽  
3D Printed

Injured bone tissues can be healed with scaffolds, which could be manufactured using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) strategy. Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is one of the most biocompatible polymers suitable for FDM, while hydroxyapatite (HA) could improve the bioactivity of scaffold due to its chemical composition. Therefore, the combination of PLA/HA can create composite filaments adequate for FDM and with high osteoconductive and osteointegration potentials. In this work, we proposed a different approache to improve the potential bioactivity of 3D printed scaffolds for bone tissue engineering by increasing the HA loading (20-30%) in the PLA composite filaments. Two routes were investigated regarding the use of solvents in the filament production. To assess the suitability of the FDM-3D printing process, and the influence of the HA content on the polymer matrix, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were performed. The HA phase content of the composite filaments agreed with the initial composite proportions. The wettability of the 3D printed scaffolds was also increased. It was shown a greener route for obtaining composite filaments that generate scaffolds with properties similar to those obtained by the solvent casting, with high HA content and great potential to be used as a bone graft.

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