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Fused filament fabrication and mechanical performance of PVDF-based specialty thermoplastics

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Abstract

Specialty thermoplastic materials based on fluoropolymer polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) became commercially available to the 3D printing community only recently. Additive manufacturing of PVDF-based structural components suited for harsher operational conditions is important for more demanding industrial sectors such as biomedical/chemical, aerospace, or automotive. Such components must ensure adequate mechanical performance in diverse deformation cases. Hence, this paper reports on fused filament fabrication (FFF) and quasi-static tensile, flexural and compressive testing of PVDF homopolymer, biocompatible PVDF-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) copolymer, and static-dissipative PVDF-HFP/graphene composite specimens, which were printed with triangular lattice infill of variable density for addressing the influence of lightweighting. Printability in an open-chamber-based FFF machine is discussed in terms of part warpage and adhesion issues, which aggravate FFF process because of the higher degree of crystallinity, larger coefficient of thermal expansion, and hydrophobicity of PVDF. It was found that these printing complications are alleviated by applying lower printing speed and temperature together with the use of wider brims and a specialized FFF-tailored adhesive. The measured stress–strain curves are examined to analyze changes in strengths and moduli of elasticity of the specimens as a function of infill density including comparisons in ductility, failure mode, and anisotropic mechanical behavior such as tension–compression asymmetry. The presented results serve as a guideline for additive manufacturing of functional PVDF-based load-bearing components that are intended for service in different loading regimes.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by a grant No. S-MIP-17-89 from the Research Council of Lithuania (project acronym: FLEXYMECH-3DP).

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The data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also forms part of an ongoing study.

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Funding

The research leading to these results received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania under Grant Agreement No. S-MIP-17-89.

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  1. Institute of Mechatronics, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu str. 56, 51424, Kaunas, Lithuania

    Farusil Najeeb Mullaveettil, Rolanas Dauksevicius, Marius Rimasauskas & Valdas Grigaliunas

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  1. Farusil Najeeb Mullaveettil
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  2. Rolanas Dauksevicius
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Farusil Najeeb Mullaveettil: investigation, formal analysis, data curation, visualization, and writing — original draft

Rolanas Dauksevicius: conceptualization, supervision, funding acquisition, formal analysis, visualization, and writing — review and editing

Marius Rimasauskas: methodology, resources, investigation, formal analysis, and writing — review and editing

Valdas Grigaliunas: investigation, resources, writing — review and editing

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Correspondence to Rolanas Dauksevicius.

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Mullaveettil, F.N., Dauksevicius, R., Rimasauskas, M. et al. Fused filament fabrication and mechanical performance of PVDF-based specialty thermoplastics. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 117, 3267–3280 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-07887-6

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