Abstract
Polypropylene (PP) is a commonly used raw material for the production of 3D printing composite filament, which has many advantages, such as low density, insulation, chemical resistance, and environmental friendliness, but its mechanical strength is poor, which affects the comprehensive performance of the 3D printing PP model. In order to effectively improve the flexural strength of material-extrusion-based 3D printing (ME-3DP) PP model, this study investigated the influence of three printing parameters (infill rate, extrusion speed, platform temperature) on the flexural strength of the 3D printed PP model through the three-point support flexural test. The results show that the flexural strength of 3D printed PP model gradually increases with the increase of the infill rate, the decrease of the extrusion speed, and the increase of the platform temperature; the degree of influence of the three parameters on the flexural strength of the 3D printed PP model is as follows: infill rate ] extrusion speed ] platform temperature; the optimal combination of the printing parameters is as follows: infill rate (90%), extrusion speed (20 mm/s), and platform temperature (70°C). The flexural strength of the 3D printed PP model fabricated according to the optimal printing parameters is 41.7 MPa, which is the maximum value in the orthogonal experiment, verifying the reliability of the experiment results.
Keywords: Printing parameters; ME-3DP; PP model; flexural strength