Bake your PLA 3D prints in an oven for a higher strength

Thomas made an interesting experiment where he baked in an standard household oven some PLA (and other filament) objects. It looks like you can improve the strength significantly with this simple method.

See the entire process and measurements in his video:




With change in strength, there is naturally some shrinkage and expansion in different axis.

Let us know in the comments if you have simillar experiences with heat treated PLA or simillar materials!

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E3D Volcano super high flow nozzle upgrade will speed up your 3d printing

E3D just released their Volcano super high flow nozzle upgrade that will speed up your 3d printing by pushing more filament trough the hot end.
Putting on a larger diameter nozzle and extruding more molten filament also improves strength since the more mass and more heat improve adhesion between the layers.


Volcano product home page:

http://e3d-online.com/index.php?route=extras/blog/getblog&blog_id=28


Here is a video demonstration and presentation of Volcano:



Here is a picture of Volcano heater block and various diameter larger nozzles:

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Michigan Tech study on tensile strength of models printed on RepRaps and commercial 3d printers

They found out that the objects can have the same tensile strength.

Study abstract

The recent development of the RepRap, an open-source self-replicating rapid prototyper, has made 3-D polymer-based printers readily available to the public at low costs (<$500). The resultant uptake of 3-D printing technology enables for the first time mass-scale distributed digital manufacturing. RepRap variants currently fabricate objects primarily from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA), which have melting temperatures low enough to use in melt extrusion outside of a dedicated facility, while high enough for prints to retain their shape at average use temperatures. In order for RepRap printed parts to be useful for engineering applications the mechanical properties of printed parts must be known. This study quantifies the basic tensile strength and elastic modulus of printed components using realistic environmental conditions for standard users of a selection of open-source 3-D printers. The results find average tensile strengths of 28.5 MPa for ABS and 56.6 MPa for PLA with average elastic moduli of 1807 MPa for ABS and 3368 MPa for PLA. It is clear from these results that parts printed from tuned, low-cost, open-source RepRap 3-D printers can be considered as mechanically functional in tensile applications as those from commercial vendors.

Study highlights

• Low costs enable mass-scale distributed digital manufacturing in ABS, PLA.

• Average tensile strengths of 28.5 MPa for ABS and 56.6 MPa for PLA.

• Average elastic moduli of 1807 MPA for ABS and 3368 MPa for PLA.

• RepRaps are as mechanically functional as commercial 3-D printers

They used this model for tensile strength testing:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:28987

Study page on Appropedia with more details:

http://www.appropedia.org/Mechanical_Properties_of_Components_Fabricated_with_Open-Source_3-D_Printers_Under_Realistic_Environmental_Conditions


Study on Academia.org:

https://www.academia.edu/6209168/Mechanical_properties_of_components_fabricated_with_open-source_3-D_printers_under_realistic_environmental_conditions

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Strength test of 3d printed ABS part

It is done by high precision scientific method "press-it-until-brakes" ...




Video by: http://www.youtube.com/user/radusava?feature=watch


How strong are your 3d printed parts? ( Btw: will they blend? :-))))))) )

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