Metallization of Thermoplastic Polymers and Composites 3D Printed by Fused Filament Fabrication

Journal article

Alessia Romani, Andrea Mantelli, Paolo Tralli, Stefano Turri, Marinella Levi, Raffaella Suriano*
Technologies, vol. 9(49), 2021 Jul, p. 14

DOI: 10.3390/technologies9030049

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APA Click to copy
Romani, A., Mantelli, A., Tralli, P., Turri, S., Levi, M., & Suriano*, R. (2021). Metallization of Thermoplastic Polymers and Composites 3D Printed by Fused Filament Fabrication. Technologies, 9(49), 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies9030049

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Romani, Alessia, Andrea Mantelli, Paolo Tralli, Stefano Turri, Marinella Levi, and Raffaella Suriano*. “Metallization of Thermoplastic Polymers and Composites 3D Printed by Fused Filament Fabrication.” Technologies 9, no. 49 (July 2021): 14.

MLA Click to copy
Romani, Alessia, et al. “Metallization of Thermoplastic Polymers and Composites 3D Printed by Fused Filament Fabrication.” Technologies, vol. 9, no. 49, July 2021, p. 14, doi:10.3390/technologies9030049.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{alessia2021a,
  title = {Metallization of Thermoplastic Polymers and Composites 3D Printed by Fused Filament Fabrication},
  year = {2021},
  month = jul,
  issue = {49},
  journal = {Technologies},
  pages = {14},
  volume = {9},
  doi = {10.3390/technologies9030049},
  author = {Romani, Alessia and Mantelli, Andrea and Tralli, Paolo and Turri, Stefano and Levi, Marinella and Suriano*, Raffaella},
  month_numeric = {7}
}

Abstract

Fused filament fabrication allows the direct manufacturing of customized and complex products although the layer-by-layer appearance of this process strongly affects the surface quality of the final parts. In recent years, an increasing number of post-processing treatments has been developed for the most used materials. Contrarily to other additive manufacturing technologies, metallization is not a common surface treatment for this process despite the increasing range of high-performing 3D printable materials. The objective of this work is to explore the use of physical vapor deposition sputtering for the chromium metallization of thermoplastic polymers and composites obtained by fused filament fabrication. The thermal and mechanical properties of five materials were firstly evaluated by means of differential scanning calorimetry and tensile tests. Meanwhile, a specific finishing torture test sample was designed and 3D printed to perform the metallization process and evaluate the finishing on different geometrical features. Furthermore, the roughness of the samples was measured before and after the metallization, and a cost analysis was performed to assess the cost-efficiency. To sum up, the metallization of five samples made with different materials was successfully achieved. Although some 3D printing defects worsened after the post-processing treatment, good homogeneity on the finest details was reached. These promising results may encourage further experimentations as well as the development of new applications, i.e., for the automotive and furniture fields. 1

Keywords

3D printing // prototyping // surface finishing // physical vapor deposition // mechanical properties // composites // fused deposition modeling // surface quality

Resources and links

📑 Full text (publisher version) 2
📊 Test Dataset (Excel Spreadsheet) 3
🛠️ Zenodo (3D Model) 4

Romani, A., Mantelli, A., Tralli, P., Turri, S., Levi, M., and Suriano, R., 2021. Metallization of Thermoplastic Polymers and Composites 3D Printed by Fused Filament Fabrication. Technologies, Vol 9, 49. DOI: 10.3390/technologies9030049 ↩
Romani, A., Mantelli, A., Tralli, P., Turri, S., Levi, M., and Suriano, R., 2021. Metallization of Thermoplastic Polymers and Composites 3D Printed by Fused Filament Fabrication. Technologies, Vol 9, 49. DOI: 10.3390/technologies9030049 ↩
Romani, A. 2021. Dataset_A.Romani_2021_Technologies. Dataset Repository. Available at Zenodo.org. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11235616 ↩
Romani, A., Mantelli, A., 2021. FFF Finishing Torture Test for PVD chromium metallization. Project repository. Available at Zenodo.org. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4672609 ↩