Optimization of the Printing Parameters of Glass Fiber Reinforced PA6 Using Factorial Experiments

Abstract

Fiber-reinforced 3D printing filaments are composite materials compounded with short, chopped additives (in this paper case glass fibers) in a polymer matrix base. Engineering filaments and reinforced filaments have gotten a lot more popular in the last few years due to their capabilities and added properties given by the reinforced material. The biggest drawback reinforced materials have other than the cost is the printability. Due to the abrasive nature of glass fiber to be able to successfully print it certain modifications to the FDM equipment must be made, such as using a tempered steel nozzle. It is also recommended to print the components in a temperature-controlled room and to keep the humidity level of the material before printing as low as possible. In this paper a glass fiber reinforced PA6 filament was tested using different printing parameters (temperature, printing speed, layer height) to establish the optimal parameters for reducing the risk reinforced materials pose for the FDM equipment while also looking for the best mechanical properties of the printed parts.