TY - JOUR

T1 - Processing Conditions of a Medical Grade Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) with the Arburg Plastic Freeforming Additive Manufacturing Process

AU - Hentschel, Lukas

AU - Kynast, Frank

AU - Petersmann, Sandra

AU - Holzer, Clemens

AU - Gonzalez-Gutierrez, Joamin

PY - 2020/11/2

Y1 - 2020/11/2

N2 - The Arburg Plastic Freeforming process (APF) is a unique additive manufacturing material jetting method. In APF, a thermoplastic material is supplied as pellets, melted and selectively deposited as droplets, enabling the use of commercial materials in their original shape instead of filaments. The medical industry could significantly benefit from the use of additive manufacturing for the onsite fabrication of customized medical aids and therapeutic devices in a fast and economical way. In the medical field, the utilized materials need to be certified for such applications and cannot be altered in any way to make them printable, because modifications annul the certification. Therefore, it is necessary to modify the processing conditions rather than the materials for successful printing. In this research, a medical-grade poly(methyl methacrylate) was analyzed. The deposition parameters were kept constant, while the drop aspect ratio, discharge rate, melt temperatures, and build chamber temperature were varied to obtain specimens with different geometrical accuracy. Once satisfactory geometrical accuracy was obtained, tensile properties of specimens printed individually or in batches of five were tested in two different orientations. It was found that parts printed individually with an XY orientation showed the highest tensile properties; however, there is still room for improvement by optimizing the processing conditions to maximize the mechanical strength of printed specimens.

AB - The Arburg Plastic Freeforming process (APF) is a unique additive manufacturing material jetting method. In APF, a thermoplastic material is supplied as pellets, melted and selectively deposited as droplets, enabling the use of commercial materials in their original shape instead of filaments. The medical industry could significantly benefit from the use of additive manufacturing for the onsite fabrication of customized medical aids and therapeutic devices in a fast and economical way. In the medical field, the utilized materials need to be certified for such applications and cannot be altered in any way to make them printable, because modifications annul the certification. Therefore, it is necessary to modify the processing conditions rather than the materials for successful printing. In this research, a medical-grade poly(methyl methacrylate) was analyzed. The deposition parameters were kept constant, while the drop aspect ratio, discharge rate, melt temperatures, and build chamber temperature were varied to obtain specimens with different geometrical accuracy. Once satisfactory geometrical accuracy was obtained, tensile properties of specimens printed individually or in batches of five were tested in two different orientations. It was found that parts printed individually with an XY orientation showed the highest tensile properties; however, there is still room for improvement by optimizing the processing conditions to maximize the mechanical strength of printed specimens.

KW - Additive Manufacturing

KW - melt deposition

KW - medical applications

KW - PMMA

KW - Melt deposition

KW - Poly(methyl methacrylate)

KW - Additive manufacturing

KW - Medical applications

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096237539&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12112677

DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12112677

M3 - Article

VL - 12

SP - 1

EP - 15

JO - Polymers

JF - Polymers

SN - 2073-4360

IS - 11

M1 - 2677

ER -