The influence of inert gas on the tensile strength and surface roughness of Cu/PLA printed part

The printed part fabricated by a fused filament fabrication 3D printer relies heavily on the printing parameters and environmental printing conditions, particularly tensile strength and surface roughness. In this study, inert gas of nitrogen and argon were fill in separately through the fused filament fabrication 3D printer chamber to eliminate oxygen from the printing environment at different gas percentage. Cu/PLA filament samples with layer thicknesses of 0.1 mm, 0.2 mm, and 0.3 mm were subjected to tensile and surface roughness testing. At a layer thickness of 0.3mm, the tensile strength has increased by 19.334 MPa for argon assisted printing and 19.108 MPa for nitrohrn assisted printing when oxygen content is 0%. The surface roughness is also improved for both inert gas assisted printing compared to normal printing. In addition, a scanning electron microscope revealed a stronger microstructure bonding for part printed with inert gas. A considerable improvement in tensile strength and surface roughness was observed, presumably in part because oxidation processes were prevented.