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IGF26 - 26th International Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity

Design and Manufacturing of a 3D printer filaments extruder

IGF26 - 26th International Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity
Taoufik Hachimia*, Nassima Naboulsia, Fatima Majida, Rajae Rhanimb, Ibrahim
Design and Manufacturing of a 3D
Mrania, Hassan printer
Rhanim a filaments extruder
a
Laboratory of Nuclear, Atomic, Molecular, Mechanical and Energetic Physics, Chouib Doukkali
Taoufik Hachimia*, Nassima University, Naboulsi a
, Fatima
24000 Majida, Rajae Rhanimb, Ibrahim
El jadida, Morocco
b Mraniand, Hassan
Laboratory Study of Advanced Materials
a
Application, Rhanim
a
University Moulay Ismail, 50000 Meknes, Morocco
a
Laboratory of Nuclear, Atomic, Molecular, Mechanical and Energetic Physics, Chouib Doukkali
University, 24000 El jadida, Morocco
b
Laboratory Study of Advanced Materials and Application, University Moulay Ismail, 50000 Meknes, Morocco
Abstract

Thermoplastic polymers have several uses in all sectors of industrial activity, such as automotive, agricultural,
aeronautical,
Abstract and other industrial applications, like home accessories. For this purpose, they have different forms
assured by three principal processes: Injection, extrusion, and additive manufacturing, known as new technology and
process based on CAD
Thermoplastic polymers(computer-aided
have severaldesign),
uses in byall using
sectors rawof materials
industrialinactivity,
form ofsuchpowders or filaments,
as automotive, called 3D
agricultural,
printing. The 3D printer’s size affects the filament’s diameter used (1,75/2,5mm). Because
aeronautical, and other industrial applications, like home accessories. For this purpose, they have different forms of the expensive price,
permanent mechanical properties and chemical composition of the filaments, and the useless
assured by three principal processes: Injection, extrusion, and additive manufacturing, known as new technology and waste plastics. A design
of a 3Dbased
process printer
on filaments extruder based
CAD (computer-aided on 3Dbysoftware
design), using raw was adopted.
materials in Furthermore,
form of powders a testbed of thiscalled
or filaments, one was
3D
manufactured.
printing. The 3D printer’s size affects the filament’s diameter used (1,75/2,5mm). Because of the expensive price,
However,
permanent this is about
mechanical creatingand
properties and producing
chemical the filament
composition used
of the while having
filaments, and the theuseless
thermoplastics in theAform
waste plastics. of
design
pellets,
of a 3Dgranules
printer and waste extruder
filaments plastic materials.
based onIn3D fact, this proposed
software solutionFurthermore,
was adopted. solves all thea issues
testbedsetofpreviously and
this one was
help to improve the mechanical properties, so that the behavior can be changed by adding other polymers, (combining
manufactured.
twoHowever,
polymersthis or more).
is about creating and producing the filament used while having the thermoplastics in the form of
pellets,
© 2021 granules
The Authors.
Keywords:
and wastebyplastic
Published
Extruder, Elsevier
thermoplastic,
materials.
B.V. additiveInmanufacturing,
polymers,
fact, this proposed solution solves all the issues set previously and
computer aided design, filament, mechanical behavior.
helpistoanimprove
This thearticle
open access mechanical
under the properties,
CC BY-NC-ND so license
that the behavior can be changed by adding other polymers, (combining
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
two polymers
Peer-review underorresponsibility
more). of the scientific committee of the IGF ExCo
Keywords: Extruder, thermoplastic, polymers, additive manufacturing, computer aided design, filament, mechanical behavior.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 00212676067714.

E-mail address: hachtaoufik@gmail.com

2452-3216 © 2021 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 00212676067714.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
E-mail address: hachtaoufik@gmail.com
Peer-review Statement: Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the IGF ExCo

2452-3216 © 2021 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review Statement: Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the IGF ExCo
2452-3216 © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the IGF ExCo
10.1016/j.prostr.2021.10.101
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2 HACHIMI Taoufik et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2021) 000–000

1. Introduction:

3D printing technologies (Additive manufacturing (AM)) used to produce physical parts from different materials
as thermoplastics, composites, and metals for serval industrial’s applications such as aerospace and automotive
Dey et al. (2021), Sathies et al. (2020, Foresti et al. (2019) with high complex geometries without costly tooling
Attaran (2017) using successive addition layers of the raw thermoplastic materials Huang et al.( 2013). A complex-
shaped part produced using a computer-aided design under the technique of fused deposition modeling FDM Nassar
et al. (2019). The 3D printer was commercialized for the first time by Charles Hull in 1980 Holzmann et al. (2017)it
was used to produce an artificial heart pump Thomas (2018).
Generally, polyamide (PA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polylactic acid (PLA), polycarbonate (PC),
and polystyrene (PS) are the most filament used to produce functional 3D-printed parts, as a result of these
thermoplastics properties, mechanical, chemical and physical, which are commercially available but very
expensive and mostly imported Hausman et al. (2014). In order to reduce the price of the filament, use the waste
plastics in this process as an eco-friendly system Zhong et al. (2018), Kreiger et al. (2013), and conduct
modification to fused modeling deposition (FMD) printing to improve their properties, this the design and the
realization of the testbed of filament are the extruder was made, Producing filament at our required size of 1,75mm
and 2,5mm.
The aims of this project are to produce a filament extruder machine at a low cost, in order to extract filament
used in the 3D printer. After this, a comparative study was made to investigate these mechanical properties and the
real ones used in the automotive industry. For this reason, mechanical tensile tests were performed Xiao (2008)
using MTS Tensile Testing Machine with a load cell of 30 kN. The crosshead speed was (500 mm/min, 200
mm/min, 50 mm/min, 5 mm/min) according to the standard used to test the filament Letcher et al. (2014), and also
based on the specimen geometry of 1,75mm and 2,5 mm diameters and 200 mm total length. The crosshead is
made of PA6 which is widely used in many different industrial domains and applications due to its high
performance, which is a grade of polyamide polymers and widely used in the irradiation industry and materials
industry, due to his poor resistance to the UV, Wang et al. (2020).

1.1. Research problems:

- The expensive price of the 3D printing filament
- Permanent mechanical properties
- Importation filament
1.2. Research Objectives and Importance:
- Design and manufacturing of new filament extruder design
- Reducing the price of the filament used in 3D printer
- Improving FMD filament materials by conduction modifications

Nomenclature

FMD Fused Modelling Deposition

CAD Computer Aided Design
PA6 Polycaprolactam
UV Ultra Violet

2. Experimental

2.1. Extruder machine:

The extruder is a long continuous process of the polymers, it’s used to produce tubing, tire treads and, wire
coverings. The extruder pushes the raw material (pellet form) into a heated tube, heated by 2-5 Heaters fixed in the
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external side of the tubes, the pushing process uses endless turning screw turned by a motor, then compressed into a
shaping die which is used to extract the final product as a filament of 1,75 and 2, 5mm. (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Extruder design for 3d printing filament

2.2. Materials and methods

The extruder machine was manufactured using parts that are not available in Morocco. The manufacturing of the
component’s part was started by the conception using Computing aided Design and the realization using mechanical
turning machine, mechanical milling machine, and laser machine, was used to perforate the shaping die with high
precision of 1,75 and2,5mm. the raw material used in this study is Polycaprolactam polymer PA6 (2,5 kg,,
NOVAERUM Morocco) it’s shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Polycaprolactam polymer PA6

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2.3. Extruder manufacture

This extruder machine was manufactured using many components:

Table 1. Extruder machine components

Components QTY
Turning screw 1
Steel Tubes 1
The hopper 1
Copper tube 1
Thermal isolation 1
The heaters 2
Locking nut 2
Shaping die 2
Support plates 2

2.3.1. Turning screw

The turning screw used has 16mm in diameter and 150mm as a total length, assures the transfer of thermoplastic
materials, in order to be extruded in different final forms aimed, thanks to its rotation around its axis of revolution and
the geometry of the flights which have 20 of width for each, while fixing the pitch in 43,5mm between every two
successive flights with 6,05 of channel depth.

a b

Fig. 3. (a) Design of Turning screw; (b) Turning screw geometry

2.3.2. Steel Tube (Chamber):

This tube works as chamber housing for the screw. The raw material is fed into the chamber through the screw.
The tube used has 16mm in internal diameter, 25 in external diameter, and 150mm in length. with a hollow area in the
lateral surface which is consecrated for the material feed, as shown in Fig. 4.

a b

Fig. 4. (a) Steel tube geometry; (b) Design of the steel tube
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2.3.3. The hopper

The suction hopper has a goal in this process, which hold the necessary quantity of the material feed to the screw,
which shown in Fig. 5.
a b

Fig. 5. (a) Hopper design; (b) The hopper geometry

2.3.4. Cooper Tube:

This tube is fabricated of copper material, which has a high thermal conductivity reaches to 386 W/m.K, 104mm
as a length, and 25mm, 20mm of external, internal diameter respectively, to assure the fusion of the material inside
by increasing its temperature, thanks to heaters fixed on the lateral surface of the tube, to facilitate its transfer.

a b

Fig. 6. (a) Design of the Steel tube geometry; (b) the steel tube geometry

2.3.5. Thermal isolation:

The parallelepiped (60x60) is made of wood for creating thermal isolation, between the hot band cold components
in its two opposite sides, with 3 holes of 8mm angularly offset by 120° degrees and 25mm of thickness.

a b

Fig. 7. (a) Thermal isolation geometry (b) Thermal isolation design

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2.3.6. Shaping die:

Shown in the end part of the filament extruder where the filament comes out. it has a cylinder shape with no top
surface, and a little hole in the middle of its bottom surface, generally made of brass because of its capacity to withstand
high temperature. in the experiment we will use two shaping dies, one has 1.75mm of the little whole diameter and
the other has 2.5mm. it has an inner hex so that it can be attached to the end of the steel tube.

a b

Fig. 8. (a) Shaping die design;(b) The shaping die geometry

2.3.7. Heaters

The heaters are fixed on the lateral surface of the copper tube so that the thermoplastic material existing inside can
be fused at 350° degrees, in order to facilitate its extrusion in the final step of the process.

2.3.8. Guide bearing:

The guide bearing is used between the extremely side screw and the tube to guide axially the screw shaft while
reducing, at the same time, the friction during the screw’s rotation.

2.3.9. Thermal regulator:

The thermal regulator has an important role in this system by controlling the Increase of the material’s
temperature, to not exceed the limit fixed previously according to the thermoplastics materials used, for protecting
its compositions.

2.3.10. Locking nut:

Metallic stop nut with 25mm of diameter that goes right between the steer tube and the support plate, it has two
sides to fix it? and it plays a very important role in the system which is to make sure that the hole in the steer tube
where the raw materials get in stays always facing the top.

2.3.11. Motor:

In order to assure the transfer of the material used in this process, a motor is coupled with the screw shaft which
gives it the necessary power to move the material, furthermore, the motor’s type used is exactly the one selected for
lifting the vehicle window.
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2.3.12. The flanges:

Two flanges with an inner diameter of 25mm and three holes of 8mm screws, used in the system one is welded
and the other is screwed, both attached to both ends of the steer tube against the support plates to stabilize and guide
the movement of the raw materials.

2.3.13. Support plates:

two support plates are used, one is welded and the other is screwed, this strategy is simply make it easy to
disassemble the steer tube when cleaning the screw inside of it. the supports have a rectangle bottom surface with
four 3mm screws. their role is to maintain the position of the hooper and the whole system as well.

2.3.14. The coupler:

a metal cylinder that stands between the motor and the reciprocating screw, so when the motor rotates it couples
it with the screw resulting in translation movement of the raw materials towards the heated tube. the cylinder has an
outer diameter of 22.5mm and an inner one of 8mm that fits the reciprocating screw, so to maintain its position on
top of both the screw in the motor arbor, we added two holes at its lateral area one with 7mm in its diameter and the
other with 5.5, both will be filled with their correspondent screws.

3. Result and Discussion

3.1. Extruder machine manufacturing:

The machine was assembled by computer-aided design as the Fig. 9(a) shown, and manufactured using the
fabrication’s machines. The extruder machine shown in Fig. 9(b) was tested using PA6 polymer, with 230°C which
is the molding temperature. It must be mention that the highest temperature achieved by the machine is 350°C, but in
order to provide a safety factor, we worked with lower temperatures.

a b

Fig. 9. (a) Filament extruder machine design; (b) Filament extruder machine manufacturing

3.2. Filament extrusion

The filaments were produced with two different diametres 1,75mm and 2.5mm, it must be mention that those results
came after many test based on modeling of the raw material and the motor speed.
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a b c

Fig. 10. (a) Extruded filament; (b) (c) filament diameters

3.3. Tensile test

The tensile test is the most mechanical test used in the world to investigate the mechanical properties, based on
forcing the specimen to deform until its rupture. This test allows you to define the tensile strength and how the
specimen can stretch before it breaks , this procedure uses a specific load cell. Yield stress, yield strain, elasticity
modulus, and tensile strength limit can be obtained.
The goal of this study was to investigate the mechanical properties of the produced filament, mechanical properties
of additively manufactured parts using the extruder. Thus, a mechanical tensile test was carried out on samples
filament of 1,75mm made of PA6, the tensile testing has been performed using an MTS Tensile Testing Machine see
Fig. 11(a) with a load cell of 30 kN. The crosshead speed was 10 mm/min. Fig. 11 (b) shows the tensile test results
made for the specimen used.

a b

Fig. 11. (a) Tensile test machine; (b) tensile test results.

3.4. Materials characterization:

The PA6 filament alone has been charactered. The Fig. 12 present an example of the tensile test for the extruded
filament of 1,75mm in diameter.
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Fig. 12. Extruded filament tensile curve

The table 2 show the different mechanicals properties of the extruded filament:

Table 2 . Filament’s properties

Filament’s Young’s Elastic limit Tensile strength Elongation at
properties modulus (Gpa) 𝜎𝜎e(MPa) 𝜎𝜎m (MPa) break (%)
value 944 7,86 15,67 4,5

3.5. Comparative study

This result has been approved by a comparative study of the mechanical properties between the extruded filament
and the mechanical properties of the raw material. Fig. 13 shows the different properties of each one of them. It’s
should be noted that the properties of the real one (raw material) given by its datasheet in
(https://www.campusplastics.com).

Real Extruded

Elongation at break (%) 4,50%

4,50%

Tensile strength 𝜎𝜎m (MPa) 50,00

15,67

Elastic limit 𝜎𝜎e(MPa) 30,00

7,86

Young’s modulus (Gpa) 1000

944

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Tensile strength 𝜎𝜎m

Young’s modulus (Gpa) Elastic limit 𝜎𝜎e(MPa) Elongation at break (%)
(MPa)
Real 1000 30,00 50,00 4,50%
Extruded 944 7,86 15,67 4,50%

Fig. 13. Comparative study

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The shown Graph presents the different properties between the real PA6-1 and the Extruded one. The mechanical
behavior of each of the specimens is analyzed. Which are closed to the real one the difference is due to the micro
inserts in the extruded one see Fig. 14.

Fig. 14. Micro-Inserts

4. Conclusion

The availability of the raw materials for the 3D printer is one of the biggest challenges for using additive
manufacturing for production and commercialization. The requirements option of good mechanical properties as well.
In this order, we made a plan to designed and produced the filament extruder, starting with conception on software
design, and ending with the realization, finally, a filament extrusion parameter has been studied. Also, filament
material has been mechanically characterized. The mechanical properties of filament obtained in our manufacturing
will be considered satisfactory. The Time and cost have been reduced. A workflow manufacturing filament extrusion
system has been developed.

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