Mechanical and Thermal Analyses of Metal-PLA Components Fabricated by Metal Material Extrusion

Mohammadizadeh, Mahdi and Lu, Hao and Fidan, Ismail and Tantawi, Khalid and Gupta, Ankit and Hasanov, Seymur and Zhang, ZhiCheng and Alifui-Segbaya, Frank and Rennie, Allan (2020) Mechanical and Thermal Analyses of Metal-PLA Components Fabricated by Metal Material Extrusion. Inventions — Open Access Journal, 5 (3): 44. ISSN 2411-5134

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Abstract

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) has gained much attention in recent years due to its advantages including geometric freedom and design complexity, appropriate for a wide range of potential industrial applications. However, conventional metal AM methods have high-cost barriers due to the initial cost of the capital equipment, support, and maintenance, etc. This study presents a low-cost metal material extrusion technology as a prospective alternative to the production of metallic parts in additive manufacturing. The filaments used consist of copper, bronze, stainless steel, high carbon iron, and aluminum powders in a polylactic acid matrix. Using the proposed fabrication technology, test specimens were built by extruding metal/polymer composite filaments, which were then sintered in an open-air furnace to produce solid metallic parts. In this research, the mechanical and thermal properties of the built parts are examined using tensile tests, thermogravimetric, thermomechanical and microstructural analysis.