Material Evaluation and Selection Criteria for 3D Printing

Abstract

3D printing has emerged as the primary additive manufacturing technology, widely
utilized across industries in the past decade for its design flexibility, material efficiency, and
rapid prototyping. FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) stands out among 3D printing techniques
for its use of reliable polymeric filaments, offering advantages like lightweight and cost-
effectiveness. Despite the advantages of FDM, the abundance of filament materials in the
market poses challenges in material selection to 3D printer users, that is which should be
selected, and what should be the criteria to base. This research project is targeted to establish
material selection criteria for 3D printing, demonstrates that filament material selection should
be driven by the function of the printing object. The project endeavors to evaluate the properties
of four major filaments available in the market, choosing a biomimetic hand as the final printing
object. We identify suitable materials to be used to print each part of the biometric hand.
Through experiments, we tested tensile creep, wear resistance, chemical solvent resistance and
density of printing from the four filaments. We select Polylactic Acid (PLA) to make the 14
phalanges bones due to its high wear resistance and compromise well on other properties;
select Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG) to make the 5 metacarpal bones mostly due
to its high creep performance; select Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) to make the 8 pieces
carpal bones. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) is ruled out due to low chemical resistance,
and not suitable for biochemistry environments. Filament selection in 3D printing should
consider material’s property which can best benefit the object’s function and duration,
sometimes may compromise.