Investigation on Filament Extrusion of Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE) for Fused Deposition Modeling

Abstract: This thesis is an investigation of the TPE filament for Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) manufacturing method. All the investigations aim to optimize the quality of the filament in order to make Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE) material possible for FDM manufacturing method. Optimization experiments were made to find out key parameters in the extrusion process that determine the quality of the filament. With the optimal parameters, further investigation of the additive content in the TPE granulate was made to solve the current problem of the filament in practical 3D printing, which the high surface friction massively affects the FDM manufacturing feasibility. The filaments were manufactured by the desktop extruder 3devo filament extruder and the surface friction tests were performed on TribotesterTM. Additionally, discussion was made to summarize the pros and cons of TPE material as well as the significance of 3D printing TPE. Potential application and benefits are mentioned for combining the property of TPE and the advantage of FDM manufacturing. Current state-of-art extrusion equipment and FDM technology are also summarized.