Rapid Prototyping Journal

Suitability of PLA/TCP for fused deposition modeling

Dietmar Drummer Sandra Cifuentes-Cuéllar Dominik Rietzel
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Dietmar Drummer Sandra Cifuentes-Cuéllar Dominik Rietzel, (2012),"Suitability of PLA/TCP for fused deposition modeling",
Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 18 Iss 6 pp. 500 - 507
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Sung-Hoon Ahn, Michael Montero, Dan Odell, Shad Roundy, Paul K. Wright, (2002),"Anisotropic material properties of fused
deposition modeling ABS", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 8 Iss 4 pp. 248-257 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13552540210441166
Brian N. Turner, Robert Strong, Scott A. Gold, (2014),"A review of melt extrusion additive manufacturing processes: I. Process
design and modeling", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 20 Iss 3 pp. 192-204 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-01-2013-0012
Q. Sun, G.M. Rizvi, C.T. Bellehumeur, P. Gu, (2008),"Effect of processing conditions on the bonding quality of FDM polymer
filaments", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 14 Iss 2 pp. 72-80 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13552540810862028

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 Suitability of PLA/TCP for fused deposition
modeling
Dietmar Drummer, Sandra Cifuentes-Cuéllar and Dominik Rietzel
Friedrich-Alexander University, Institute for Polymer Technology, Erlangen, Germany

Abstract
Purpose – Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is a layer by layer technology with the potential to create complex and individual parts from
thermoplastic materials such as ABS. The use of Polylactic acid (PLA) and tricalcium phosphate (TCP) as resorbable composite is state of the art in tissue
engineering and maxillofacial surgery. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the processing conditions and the performance of parts (e.g. mechanical
properties) manufactured with a FDM machine.
Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the general suitability of PLA for the processing with FDM is evaluated and material specific effects
(e.g. crystallization and shrinkage) are shown. Therefore, the characterization of the semi-crystalline biodegradable material by thermal, mechanical
and microscopic analysis is carried out.
Findings – Facts, which affect the functional properties of the samples, are analyzed. Among them, the processing temperature and sample size
significantly affect the morphology of the final components. Components from PLA/TCP with sufficient mechanical properties for their potential use as
scaffolds are obtained.
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Originality/value – Thus, the paper shows that by thermal analysis it is possible to identify major influences on processing and part properties.

Keywords Advanced manufacturing technologies, Modelling, Mechanical properties of materials, Composite materials, Fused deposition modelling

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction Besides FDM, stereolithography, selective laser sintering

There is a wide variation of biomaterials available for medical
applications such as tissue engineering or bone reconstruction
that have been investigated with fused deposition modeling
(FDM) (Table I). To create suitable products (e.g. implants), it is
necessary to find appropriate technologies that fully utilize the
given possibility of an in vivo biodegradable material. By means of
degradation times and complete bone incorporation, it is of high
importance to achieve adjusted surfaces and structures. FDM is
an additive manufacturing technology with wide applications in
the engineering field. Many attempts have been done to extend
this technique in clinical and medical applications for the
development of medical models and implants by means of
medical rapid prototyping (MRP) (Table II; Hutmacher et al.,
2000; Gibson, 2006; Gibson et al., 2012).
Using the FDM technology for the fabrication of complex
mandibular models for reconstructive surgery is viable and
optimal results can be obtained (Kouhi et al., 2008).
The technique has been used in maxillofacial and mandibular
surgical planning and prosthesis design. It has provided virtual
operation models for the surgeon to plan the surgery and to
optimize the design of the implants before the surgical
intervention. FDM has also demonstrated to be an appropriate
technique in the fabrication of scaffolds using biomaterials for
medical applications (Hutmacher et al., 2000; Zein et al., 2002;
Kalita et al., 2003).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1355-2546.htm
Rapid Prototyping Journal
18/6 (2012) 500– 507
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1355-2546]
[DOI 10.1108/13552541211272045]
(SLS) and 3D-printing are the most competitive manufacturing
technologies which have been applied in the medical field for the
direct or indirect construction of scaffolds and hard or soft
tissues (Sánchez-Salcedo et al., 2007; Antonov et al., 2005;
Li et al., 2005; Moroni et al., 2006; Tan et al., 2003). Comparing
the techniques according to their advantages and disadvantages
of their implementation in the medical field, it is found, that
FDM has a high potential for the production of porous
structures with a controlled architecture (Chim et al., 2006). In
general, amorphous materials can be processed with FDM due
to their low shrinkage while solidification (Wendel et al., 2008).
FDM has demonstrated to be a feasible technology to directly
fabricate a functional scaffold (Antonov et al., 2005). The ability
of FDM to process biomaterials has been also demonstrated in
several investigations. For example, experiments reveal that
scaffolds made using polyethylene oxide-terephtalate/
polybutylene-terephtalate (PEOT/PBT) copolymers show to
be biocompatible both in vitro and in vivo (Moroni et al., 2006).
Likewise, scaffolds made with polypropylene (PP) and
tricalcium phosphate (TCP) result to be non-toxic and
attachment of cells could be shown in vitro (Kalita et al.,
2003). Thus, mechanical and biological requirements for
tailored tissue engineered applications can be accomplished.
Table I resumes the biomaterials that have been successfully
used in FDM for tissue engineering applications.
Modifications of FDM have been made to overcome
some limitations of the technology when processing
natural polymers. These variants of FDM enable the use of
other biomaterials. Table II explains and shows the new
modified FDM techniques. There are even FDM machines
Received: 15 February 2011
Accepted: 19 July 2011

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 Suitability of PLA/TCP for fused deposition modeling Rapid Prototyping Journal
Dietmar Drummer, Sandra Cifuentes-Cuéllar and Dominik Rietzel Volume 18 · Number 6 · 2012 · 500 –507

Table I Biomaterials investigated in FDM Thermal analysis of PLA was done by means of differential
scanning calorimetry (DSC Q1000, TA Instruments) to
Material Reference
investigate the change in thermal history. In first instance, the
PCL Hutmacher et al. (2000), materials were dried according to the manufacturers
Zein et al. (2002), Chim et al. (2006) requirements. Once the sufficient drying was carried out,
HA Bose et al. (1999) PLA was compound with 2.5 and 5.0 wt.% b-TCP at 808C
PP-b-TCP Kalita et al. (2003) during one hour in a MP-M mixer (Somakon GmbH). Then
POT/PBT Moroni et al. (2006) the material was extruded in a micro extruder (ED-N20-25D,
PCL-b-TCP Chim et al. (2006) Extrudex Kunststoffmaschinen GmbH) to filaments with a
b-TCP Bose et al. (2003) diameter of 1.65 ^ 0.05 mm. For the cooling and calibration
of the filament the extruder counts with a cool and calibration
bath, and a belt-haul off.
(3D-Bioplottere, EnvisionTEC) available for drug release The obtained filaments were processed in a Stratasys FDM
and tissue engineering applications (Wendel et al., 2008). 8000 machine. As the filaments with a b-TCP content of 5.0
Among the shown biomaterials suitable for being modeled by wt.% were to brittle for the processing in the FDM machine
fused deposition, poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA)/TCP composite the investigation were only carried out with a filler content of
scaffolds seem to have best mechanical properties (Xiong et al., 2.5 wt.%. In order to investigate the influence of processing
2001, 2002; Yan et al., 2003). temperature on the mechanical performance of FDM-parts,
To know about the material behavior during processing and 1:2 samples for short-term tensile tests according to DIN EN
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the resulting part properties, the characterization of new
materials by thermal and microscopic analysis is crucial.
These tests will be carried out in this paper in order to
evaluate the processing conditions and the performance of
parts (e.g. mechanical properties) manufactured with a FDM
machine.
2. Materials and methods
For this investigation, Polylactide Biomerw L9000, supplied
by the company Biomer, Germany and b-TCP (nanoXIM
TCP202), provided by Fluidinova, Portugal are the selected
materials.
Commercially available polylactic acid (PLA) are in general
copolymers of PLLA and poly(D,L-lactic acid) (PDLLA),
which are produced from L-lactides and D,L-lactides,
respectively. PLA polymers with a L-lactide content more
than cL , 90% tend to be crystalline while a lower amount
results in amorphous PDLLA (Lim et al., 2008).
TCP Ca3(PO4)2 is one of the main elements of bone and
thus an ideal implant material, which degrades in replacing
natural tissues. It enables the regeneration of tissue, as it is
an osteoconductive material (Cao and Hench, 1996).
The selected b-TCP is gained by a spray drying process and
has an average particle size of 5 ^ 1 mm to be easily dispersed
in the polymer matrix.
ISO 527-1,-2 were processed at three different temperatures
(215, 225 and 2358C) and a chamber temperature of 408C.
With the aim of analyzing the influence of the part size built
with FDM, a set of five full sized (1:1) specimens was built at
2358C. Thus, in this single investigation it is possible to
analyze the influence of a variation in time between the single
paths that are molten on the resulting morphology. As the
sample built with the highest nozzle temperature (2358C) may
lead to the highest recrystallization of the subjacent layer only
this temperature was chosen.
Other influencing variables on the component properties are
content, geometry and dispersion of the filler within the
polymeric matrix as they can affect the bonding and
solidification process. With pvT-measurements, using a pvT
100 (SWO Polymertechnik GmbH), an estimation of the change
in volume of the later component during the solidification was
done and the influence of the filler was investigated.
Thermogravimetric analysis was done using a TGA High
Resolution 2950 (TA Instruments) and microscopic structure
studies (bright and polarized field illuminated microscopic
micrographs) were performed to assess the distribution of TCP,
and to analyze the crystallization effects and resulting
morphology. Additionally, SEM images were used to
investigate layer bonding and the fracture mirror of
components after tensile testing.

Table II Variants of FDM technologies

FDM technique Material Modification Reference
3D-fiber deposition technique PEGT-PBT Feedstock material in pellet form. Material fed directly Woodfield et al. (2004)
into the heated liquefier. Flow regulated applying pressure
Precision-extruding deposition PCL Extruder equipped with a built-in heating unit. Wang et al. (2004)
Flow regulated by pressure
Precise extrusion manufacturing PLLA-TCP Machine equipped by a sprayer with a cylindrical liquefier. Xiong et al. (2001)
Flow regulated by compressed air which acts as a piston
Low-temperature deposition PLLA-TCP The material is fed as slurry. Solvents are used. Low-temperature Xiong et al. (2002)
manufacturing environment under 08C. Requires freeze drying
Multi-nozzle deposition manufacturing PLLA-TCP Improved LDM version with a robotic dispenser Yan et al. (2003)
Pressure assisted microsyringe PCL, PLLA Polymer is dissolved and expelled by a microsyringe Vozzi et al. (2002)
Source: Modified from Yeong et al. (2004)

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 Suitability of PLA/TCP for fused deposition modeling Rapid Prototyping Journal
Dietmar Drummer, Sandra Cifuentes-Cuéllar and Dominik Rietzel Volume 18 · Number 6 · 2012 · 500 –507

3. Results As melting enthalpie DH0m of a fully crystalline PLA, a value of

3.1 DSC
Figures 1 and 2 show the change of thermal history, by means
of DSC curves, of the investigated material in each stage of the
process: granulate, extrudate and component after processing
in the FDM machine. The glass transition temperature is
between 54 and 568C and decreases slightly with each
processing step. The reduction in the glass transition
temperature is usually related to degradation facts (Lim et al.,
2008; Tiganis et al., 2002), but the temperature variation in
this particular case is not significant enough to affirm
decomposition of the material.
Except for the raw material, the peak for recrystallization
just above the glass transition temperature is even more
obvious. Due to the nucleating effect of impurities,
respectively, degradation products (Figure 1, extrudate) and
filler (TCP), a crystallization is initiated (Figure 2, extrudate
2.5 wt.% TCP and FDM part). Table III shows the degree of
crystallization (integral value) of each sample determined by
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93.0 J/g was assumed from literature (Kim et al., 2004). The
crystallinity of the extruded material was lower than the FDM
part due to the slower cooling rate during the FDM process.
The raw material (Granulate) has a crystallinity degree of
KGranulate ¼ 48.1% before it is processed for the first time and
the thermal history has changed. Because of these findings,
a more detailed focus was the analysis of crystallization degrees
of FDM parts with different processing temperatures. Due to
those significant differences in the transmitted light images
microtome cuts were collected top down and the degree
of crystallinity was determined using DSC measurements
(Table IV).
3.2 pvT-measurements
From pvT-diagrams, the specific volume change Dv during
solidification and thus also recurrent crystallization effects
while cooling can be estimated. It is observed that
crystallization occurs in the sample with TCP (Figure 4) but
not in PLA without filler (Figure 3), these findings are

measuring the heat of fusion and heat of recrystallization from consistent with those obtained from DSC-measurements.
DSC, with (Ehrenstein et al., 2003): PLA without filler behaves like an amorphous material, but
DH total ¼ DH melt 2 DH recrystallization once the material is extruded, modeled and has TCP within
the matrix, the behavior of the polymer is semi-crystalline.
DH total Figure 3 shows only one change of slope in the curve, relating
K¼ · 100%
DH Om specific volume with temperature, due to the glass transition
temperature. On the other hand, Figure 4 shows two changes
in slope, the first is due to crystallization (T , 115-1258C),
Figure 1 Differential scanning calorimetry – heating
and the second is caused by the glass transition temperature
0.5 (T , 608C). Nevertheless, in both cases the specific volume
heating Biomer L9000 DSC - 1. Heating change between molten and solid state is comparable. Low
0.0 107.1°C contraction in volume is an advantage for FDM as the
97.5°C
167.9°C filaments are solidified layer-by-layer unlike SLS, where a
Heat Flow [W/g]

–0.5 quasi-isothermal process above crystallization temperature is

95.0°C realized (Rietzel et al., 2008). If the contraction of the material
–1.0 is high, the dimensional accuracy is not given, as warpage
172.2°C occurs due to temperature gradients. This is the major reason
–1.5 172.1°C for the general use of amorphous materials with FDM.
Granulate
Extrudate 3.3 Filler content and distribution
–2.0
Extrudate + 2.5 w.% TCP 168.9˚C Table V presents the results for thermogravimetric analysis of
FDM Part
–2.5 PLA granules, PLA extrudate, extrudate with PLA/TCP and
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 the FDM component. According to this table, there was a
Temperature [°C] deviation, placed within a tolerable range, between the
measured filler content and the theoretical concentration of
TCP (cTCP ¼ 2.5 wt.%) in the compound. The residue of
Figure 2 Differential scanning calorimetry – cooling
the granules and the filament may come from vestiges of the
0.6 industrial polymerization process and additives in the
Granulate Biomer L9000 - Cooling
polymer. The remains of the extruded material with TCP
Extrudate
0.5 and the FDM-part correspond to the filler plus the remnants
Extrudate + 2.5 w.% TCP Cooling
FDM Part 98.0°C inherent to the production of the thermoplastic.
The polymer and the extruded filaments have the same
Heat Flow [W/g]

0.4 55.8°C initial degradation temperature (IDT) where 10 percent of

weight loss is measured. A significant degradation of the
0.3
55.5°C 98.6°C material through the extrusion process could not be measured
with this method.
0.2
108.4°C
54.0°C 3.4 Influence of the processing temperature on parts
0.1
55.0°C 113.6°C properties
Tensile bars were manufactured from PLA using an FDM
0.0 machine. They have good accuracy in xy-direction (Figure 5).
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Especially in the layers connected to the surface of the
Temperature [°C] building chamber irregularities can occur due to the need of

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 Suitability of PLA/TCP for fused deposition modeling Rapid Prototyping Journal
Dietmar Drummer, Sandra Cifuentes-Cuéllar and Dominik Rietzel Volume 18 · Number 6 · 2012 · 500 –507

Table III Crystallinity degree of the material according to the process stage (integral value)
Heat of fusion Heat of recrystallization
Process stage DHmelt (J/g) DHrecrystallization (J/g) Crystallinity K (%)
Granules 44.7 0.0 48.1
Extrudate 35.1 30.7 4.8
FDM-part 39.4 21.5 19.3

Table IV Crystallinity degree in different heights of FDM tensile bars Figure 4 Specific volume change of PLA þ 2.5 wt.% TCP when cooling
with varying processing parameters
1.00
Position Hmelt Hrecrystallization Htotal Crystallinity K 1 bar Biomer L9000 + 2.5%TCP
(mm) (J/g) (J/g) (J/g) (%) 0.95 200 bar

Specific Volume [cm3/g]

400 bar
PLA/TCP 1:2 2358C 800 bar Tkonset
0.90
Upper 20-80 43.9 34.8 9.1 9.8 1,200 bar
Upper 340-400 46.3 35.2 11.1 11.9 0.85
Upper 660-720 46.3 26.7 19.6 21.1
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Upper 980-1,040 46.3 11.5 34.8 37.5 0.80

Bottom 20-80 41.0 3.8 37.2 40.0
Bottom 340-400 42.9 6.4 36.5 39.2 0.75 ∆v1,0 bar = 0.1265 [cm3/g]
Bottom 660-720 46.5 8.6 37.9 40.7 Tk1,0 bar = 125.0°C
Bottom 980-1,040 46.3 8.4 37.9 40.7 0.70
PLA/TCP 1:2 2258C 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220
Upper 20-80 39.7 29.9 9.8 10.6 Temperature [°C]
Upper 340-400 44.4 34.4 10.0 10.8
Upper 660-720 44.4 30.3 14.2 15.2
Upper 980-1,040 45.5 25.0 20.5 22.1 Table V Thermogravimetric analysis
Bottom 20-80 40.4 9.7 30.7 33.0 Residue (w.%) IDT 10% loss (8C)
Bottom 340-400 42.5 11.1 31.4 33.8
Bottom 660-720 44.2 19.0 25.2 27.1 Granules 0.07 337
Bottom 980-1,040 44.9 21.9 23.0 24.7 Extrudate 0.07 337
PLA/TCP 1:2 2158C Extrudate 2.5 w.% TCP 2.12 342
Upper 20-80 40.5 32.8 7.8 8.4 FDM-part 2.36 342
Upper 340-400 40.9 32.0 8.9 9.5
Upper 660-720 43.2 33.8 9.4 10.1
Upper 980-1,040 43.5 33.0 10.5 11.3 Figure 5 FDM tensile bars PLA/TCP 1:1 2358C (left); PLA/TCP 1:2 2358C
Bottom 20-80 43.1 29.3 13.8 14.8 (right)
Bottom 340-400 43.9 31.6 12.4 13.3
Bottom 660-720 41.6 30.9 10.7 11.5
Bottom 980-1,040 43.3 33.6 9.7 10.4

Figure 3 Specific volume change of PLA when cooling

1.00
1 bar PLA Biomer L9000
200 bar
0.95
Specific Volume [cm3/g]

400 bar
800 bar
0.90 1,200 bar

0.85

0.80

0.75
∆v1,0 bar = 0.1154 [cm3/g]
0.70
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220
Temperature [°C]

503
 Suitability of PLA/TCP for fused deposition modeling
Dietmar Drummer, Sandra Cifuentes-Cuéllar and Dominik Rietzel
support structures that have to be removed manually. Parts
presented an appropriate E-modulus for a later medical use,
as Figure 6 shows. According to Ruffieux (2004), the stiffness
of an implant should range between 2,000 and 5,000 N/mm2.
For the current short term tensile test the outcome for
stiffness was 2,691 N/mm2 at a FDM nozzle temperature of
2158C, 3,122 N/mm2 at 2258C, and 2,730 N/mm2 at 2358C.
In accordance with Figure 6, the processing temperature
which results in best mechanical performance is 2258C.
The specimens that present the highest standard deviation
are the ones built at the lowest temperature. The parts with
the lowest tensile strength and elongation at break were
manufactured at 2358C.
The cooling rate of the material is related with the processing
temperature and affects the degree of crystallinity and the
morphology in the thermoplastic which, simultaneously, affects
the mechanical properties of the specimen and its
biodegradability. The amorphous regions present faster
degradation and resorption in vivo, and higher diffusion
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coefficients, in comparison to the semi-crystalline structures,
which have slower resorption in vivo and better mechanical
properties during degradation (Anderson and Shive, 1997).
The morphology of the FDM-parts is visible in the
transmitted light images with polarized light taken of
microtome cuts from FDM tensile bars at different nozzle
temperatures (Figure 7). In the plan view, it is visible that big
pores can still remain in the cross section and the accuracy is
still bad. This can potentially be avoided with different
pathways generated by the software and a closer view on the
processing behavior of PLA. Nevertheless, it is possible to
analyze the differences in structure and morphology of the layer
wise generated parts. Semi-crystalline areas of the samples are
seen translucent due to the changed optical diffraction of the
dense packed crystals and can be distinguished from
the predominantly amorphous and thus transparent areas.
The wide bright region of the bar with a nozzle temperature
of 2358C indicates that mostly of the cross section is
Figure 6 Influence of processing temperature and size of specimens in mechanical properties of parts
5,000
E-modulus
Stress at Break
Elongation at Break
Modulus of Elasticity E [N/mm2]
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0 0
)
:2
:2
:2
(1
(1
(1
C
5°
5°
5°
21
22
23
=
T
504
Rapid Prototyping Journal
Volume 18 · Number 6 · 2012 · 500 –507
semi-crystalline. This sample has a small superior opaque
amorphous region at the upper layers which was also proven by
DSC measurements (Table IV). The formation of crystals is
reduced to the center of the bottom layers (bottom of the
sample) with decreasing temperatures. Therefore, there is a
remarkable relation between the processing temperature and
the morphology of the final FDM-part. In the image of the 1:1
sample, the comprised crystalline and amorphous regions are
shown more in detail. By taking a more detailed look into
morphology and filler distribution it can be observed that TCP
is evenly distributed in the polymer matrix (Figure 8).
By means of scaling of the part size, the thermal processing
conditions are changed, too. Also in the 1:1 tensile bar semi-
crystalline areas are formed at the center of the cross section but
preferred at the interface between rods. Especially the outer
areas of single rods are heated several times, when a new layer of
molten material is deposited and thus recrystallization can take
place. Due to those significant differences in the transmitted
light images, microtome cuts were collected top down as well as
bottom up and the degree of crystallinity was determined using
DSC measurements (Table IV). A change from 8.35 percent
(upper regions) up to 40.72 percent (bottom regions) was
obtained which has a high influence on mechanical properties
and the degradation behavior.
Pieces have also imperfections due to the way of their
manufacturing, layer-by-layer. In the presented micrographs, it
is also possible to identify remaining gaps in each part. Those
gaps affect the mechanical performance of the part and act as
weak points under load. Consequently, there may be the start of
fractures when load is exerted. Thus, SEM images of the
fracture mirror were taken to analyze the mechanisms of break.
The fracture surface is in general brittle and in some areas the
interfacial bonding of single layers is visible (Figure 9).
3.5 Influence of part size
Figure 6 shows that there is a direct dependence between the
part size and the mechanical properties of the specimen.
40 2.0
35
Tensile sress at break σbreak [N/mm2]
Elongation at Break εbreak [%]
30 1.5
25
20 1.0
15
10 0.5
5
0.0
)
:1
(1
C
5°
23
=
 Suitability of PLA/TCP for fused deposition modeling Rapid Prototyping Journal
Dietmar Drummer, Sandra Cifuentes-Cuéllar and Dominik Rietzel Volume 18 · Number 6 · 2012 · 500 –507

Figure 7 Transmitted light (polarized) images taken of microtome cuts from FDM tensile bars
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Notes: PLA/TCP 1:2 215°C (top left); PLA/TCP 1:2 225°C (top right); PLA/TCP 1:2 235°C
(bottom left); PLA/TCP 1:1 235°C (bottom right)

Figure 8 Transmitted light (polarized) and bright field image taken of microtome cuts from a FDM tensile bar (PLA/TCP 1:2 2358C) in order to show TCP
distribution

Bigger parts exhibit higher stiffness. This is due to the amount
of rasters that draw the path during the construction of a layer.
Big parts are manufactured with the same raster diameter as
small parts, and therefore they need more rasters in order to
build every single layer than the smaller specimens.
Additionally, the influence of weak points on the surface is
diminished due to the higher cross section. The elastic modulus
of the 1:1 specimens is even higher than of the 1:2 specimens
built at 2258C. Bigger specimens have a higher tensile strength
and elongation at break due to a better accuracy and density of
the sample. On the other hand, the accuracy of the parts was
investigated but no significant influence of the processing
temperature on the parts size and tolerances was observed
(Table VI). All samples have an increased cross-section
compared to the nominal size – this has to be adjusted by the
scaling factors when a robust process is set-up.
4. Summary and outlook
The main objective of this work was to process a biodegradable
thermoplastic part by FDM and to understand the thermal
effects that occur with this special polymer.
Samples were manufactured at three different nozzle
temperatures in order to establish the influence of the
processing temperature and to be evaluated with the short-

505
 Suitability of PLA/TCP for fused deposition modeling
Dietmar Drummer, Sandra Cifuentes-Cuéllar and Dominik Rietzel
Figure 9 SEM images of the fracture surface made from PLA/TCP 1:2 2358C
Table VI Nominal and real size of tensile bars
Width (mm) Thickness (mm)
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Nominal size 1:1 10.0 4.0
Nominal size 1:2 5.0 2.0
PLA/TCP 1:1 2358C 10.95 ^ 0.10 4.50 ^ 0.46
PLA/TCP 1:2 2358C 5.50 ^ 0.27 2.62 ^ 0.37
PLA/TCP 1:2 2258C 5.59 ^ 0.40 2.86 ^ 0.30
PLA/TCP 1:2 2158C 5.49 ^ 0.16 2.79 ^ 0.27
term tensile test. All the modeled tensile bars presented an
adequate E-modulus. The nozzle temperature resulting in
best mechanical performance was 2258C.
A remarkable relation between the processing temperature
and the morphology was found. Parts have a higher degree of
crystallinity when the nozzle temperature is increased. A main
influence is due to the measured recrystallization, when
already bonded layers are heated again by neighboring
filaments.
There is also a direct dependence between the part size and
the mechanical properties of the specimen. Bigger tensile bars
had higher stiffness, more tensile strength and elongation at
break, which can be traced back to fewer influence of rough
surfaces.
The pvT-measurements of PLA filled with TCP, showed the
behavior of a typical semi-crystalline thermoplastic. On the
other side, the polymer without TCP presented the behavior of
an amorphous thermoplastic. Only PLA filled with TCP could
be processed by a commercially available FDM machine with
good accuracy.
This work opens another path in the long course of the
material improvement in MRP technology. Nevertheless,
some limitations emerge, carrying the need for further
experimental research.
In order to fulfill all the requirements, which a scaffold must
meet for medical purposes, there is still a long way to go. The
influence of the parameters of FDM on pore distribution
should be investigated, as well as the influence of the filler
geometry. Resulting effects of compounding and processing on
biocompatibility and in vivo degradation should also be
investigated. Up to now, the characterization of the material
by thermal and microscopic analysis has been carried out for
the study of the mechanical performance of parts manufactured
with FDM, which can find load-bearing applications in
medicine. Of special interest can be the high influence of
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processing parameters and the resulting morphology. Thus,
processing conditions influence the crystallinity of the implant
and this subsequently has severe effects on the degradation
behavior and time. In knowing this behavior a special implant
design can help to generate selectively semi-crystalline or
amorphous areas to achieve long lasting mechanical properties
and a high degradation speed.
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Corresponding author
Dominik Rietzel can be contacted at: rietzel@lkt.
uni-erlangen.de
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