Improved mechanical properties of 3D-printed parts by fused deposition modeling processed under the exclusion of oxygen

3D printing via fused deposition modeling (FDM) has developed to the probably most common rapid prototyping technology due to its easy of use and broad range of available materials. Nowadays, FDM printed parts are on the way to be used in various applications ranging from all-day use to more technical purposes. As a matter of fact, the mechanical strength is one of the main parameters to be optimized by the choice of the material and the 3D-printing settings, such as layer height, nozzle temperature and printing speed. Here, we report on the improvement of the mechanical properties of printed parts by use of an inert gas atmosphere during the print. A typical FDM printer has been inserted into the nitrogen atmosphere of a glove box and used without modifications to print parts made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and polyamide as printing materials with a high mechanical load tolerance. Probably partly due to the prevention of oxidation processes, a significant increase in elongation at break and tensile strength was observed. This may be explained by a reduced degradation of the polymer surface at the comparatively high printing temperature. 3D printing under the exclusion of oxygen may be realized comparatively easy by flooding the printing chamber with nitrogen in future applications for the production of FDM-printed parts with improved mechanical properties. © 2016, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.