A feasible study on the Application of Cyclic Annealing Treatment for ۳D Printed PLA Parts

چکیده مقاله

In ۳D printing of polymeric parts, the annealing cycle, is a post process method that allows different polymeric materials to enhance their mechanical and thermal properties and also to eliminate their residual stresses. However, Annealing has some drawbacks such as produces induced shrinkage to the treated parts. In this study, a new technique named “cyclic annealing” is proposed to reduce shrinkage due to annealing treatment. By subsequent increasing and reduction of the temperature over and bellow the glass transition temperature instead of sudden increasing the temperature to the target annealing temperature, a significant reduction of shrinkage observed for the printed PLA parts. Various cylindrical shape samples with different infill densities (%۳۰, %۵۰, %۷۰ and %۱۰۰) were examined in ۷۰°C, ۹۰°C and ۱۱۰°C annealing temperatures. Considerable reduction of shrinkage up to %۵۰ and improvement of the material strength were observed which confirms the applicability of the proposed cyclic annealing method as an alternative of traditional polymer annealing for ۳D printed materials