New Approach for Extrusion Additive Manufacturing of Soft and Elastic Articles from Liquid-PVC-Based Consumable...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Polymer Engineering
• Additive Manufacturing

Background:

• Conventional additive manufacturing (AM) often struggles with producing flexible parts.
• Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastisol offers potential for flexible material AM but requires specialized processing.
• Existing AM methods are limited in achieving specific mechanical properties like low Shore A hardness and high ductility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and experimentally validate a novel additive manufacturing process utilizing liquid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastisol.
• To adapt a conventional melt-filament AM system for liquid material deposition.
• To investigate the influence of process parameters and material composition on the mechanical properties of the manufactured parts.

Main Methods:

• Conversion of a standard filament-based AM system for liquid plastisol deposition.
• Systematic variation of AM process parameters (e.g., deposition speed, temperature).
• Modification of PVC plastisol formulations, including the incorporation of inorganic fillers and varying material distribution patterns.

Main Results:

• Successful deposition of liquid PVC plastisol to create additively manufactured parts.
• Achieved a Shore A hardness range of 5 to 60, indicating high flexibility.
• Demonstrated mechanical properties comparable to conventionally molded parts.
• Identified significant effects of process parameters, filler content, and material distribution on mechanical performance.

Conclusions:

• The novel liquid plastisol AM process enables the production of highly ductile parts with tunable hardness.
• This method overcomes limitations of conventional filament AM for flexible materials.
• The developed process shows promise for manufacturing specialized components with properties similar to molded parts.