Influence of the shape of the filling on the mechanical properties of samples made by 3D printing

Abstract

In this work, the influence of material type and sample fill density was evaluated. One PLA material was tested. Test specimens having different fill structure and density were printed from this material. Full honeycomb and gyroid shapes were used for the fill structure. The specimens had four different fill percentages for each structure: 10%, 25%, 50% and 75%. These bodies were compared to samples that were printed with 100% fill. Tensile test was performed on printed test pieces. The Zwick / Roell Z100 was used for testing and the surface hardness of the test specimens was measured by the Shore D method on a DIGI-Test II hardness tester. Fracture surfaces were evaluated on an Olympus DSX 500 optodigital microscope. The results showed that the shape of the fill did not signifi-cantly affect the values obtained by the tensile test. The hardness measurement results showed a different hardness on the bottom surface that was in contact with the printing pad and the top printing surface. Fractographic analysis revealed different types of fracture surfaces related to the printed fill structure.