Mechanical properties of PLA-based composites for fused deposition modeling technology

To predict the mechanical behavior of 3D printed products, it is important to understand the composite material properties and the effect that parameters of 3D printing process have on the properties of these materials. The mechanical properties of PLA-based composite materials were studied in this work. The mechanical properties of the hot pressed samples were compared to those of the 3D printed samples. The elongation at break and the yield strength of the samples fabricated by 3D printing are decreased by 15-60% compared to those for the hot pressed samples. It has been found that the mechanical properties of 3D printed samples do not practically depending on the deposition scheme.