Tensile strength, elastic modulus and thermal conductivity of 3D-Printed components using bronze/PLA filament

This work shows an in-depth study to produce a sintered metallic material through Cu89/Sn11 bronze polylactic acid (PLA) filament printed with low-cost Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology. Tensile strength, elastic modulus and thermal conductivity were determined according to ISO 2740 and ASTM E1530 standards respectively. Two printing parameters configurations with their corresponding debinding/sintering thermal curves were studied, and the results obtained were compared with specimens of Cu89/Sn11 manufactured by gravity casting. The highest mechanical and thermal properties were obtained for the rectilinear filling pattern, and when the printing parameters and the debinding/sintering temperatures were: filling printing speed 30 mm/s, wall printing speed 15 mm/s, layer height 0.3 mm, wall thickness 0.2 mm, debinding temperature 184 °C and sintering temperature 858 °C. The highest average tensile strength obtained for the specimens manufactured by FDM was 104.64 MPa, while the values obtained for the elastic modulus and thermal conductivity were 15.13 GPa and 82.68 W/m.K respectively. The results obtained for the specimens manufactured by gravity casting were higher (tensile strength obtained 300 MPa, elastic modulus 80 GPa and thermal conductivity 116 W/m.K). Despite obtaining lower mechanical and thermal properties for FDM-manufactured specimens, the speed and simplicity with which such specimens were produced would demonstrate that the proposed alternative method is capable of rapidly producing complex parts and prototypes for industrial applications.