Mechanical properties analysis of polyetherimide parts fabricated by fused deposition modeling

Abstract

Polyetherimide (PEI) is a kind of high-performance polymer, which possesses a high glass transition temperature ( Tg), excellent flame retardancy, low smoke generation, and good mechanical properties. In this article, PEI was applied in the fused deposition modeling (FDM)–based 3-D printing for the first time. The entire process from filament extrusion to printing was studied. It was observed that the filament orientation and nozzle temperature were closely related to the mechanical properties of printed samples. When the nozzle temperature is 370°C, the mean tensile strength of FDM printing parts can reach to 104 MPa, which is only 7% lower than that of injection molded parts. It can be seen that the 0° orientation set of samples show the highest storage modulus (2492 MPa) followed by the 45° samples, and the 90° orientation set of samples show the minimum storage modulus (1420 MPa) at room temperature. The above results indicated that this technique allows the production of parts with adequate mechanical performance, which does not need to be restricted to the production of mock-ups and prototypes. Our work broke the limitations of traditional FDM technology and expanded the types of material available for FDM to the high-temperature engineering plastics.