Study on 3D printing process of continuous polyglycolic acid fiber-reinforced polylactic acid degradable composites

A continuous polyglycolic acid (PGA) fiber-reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) degradable composite was proposed for application in biodegradable load-bearing bone implant. The fused deposition modeling (FDM) process was used to fabricate composite specimens. The influences of the printing process parameters, such as layer thickness, printing spacing, printing speed, and filament feeding speed on the mechanical properties of the PGA fiber-reinforced PLA composites, were studied. The thermal properties of the PGA fiber and PLA matrix were investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The internal defects of the as-fabricated specimens were characterized by the micro-X- ray 3D imaging system. During the tensile experiment, a full-field strain measurement system was used to detect the strain map and analysis the fracture mode of the specimens. A digital microscope and field emission electron scanning microscopy were used to observe the interface bonding between fiber and matrix and fracture morphologies of the specimens. The experimental results showed that the tensile strength of specimens was related to their fiber content and porosity. The printing layer thickness and printing spacing had significant impacts on the fiber content. The printing speed did not affect the fiber content but had a slight effect on the tensile strength. Reducing the printing spacing and layer thickness could increase the fiber content. The tensile strength (along the fiber direction) of the specimen with 77.8% fiber content and 1.82% porosity was the highest, reaching 209.32 ± 8.37 MPa, which is higher than the tensile strength of the cortical bone and polyether ether ketone (PEEK), indicating that the continuous PGA fiber-reinforced PLA composite has great potential in the manufacture of biodegradable load-bearing bone implants.