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3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is becoming increasingly popular for prototype processing in industrial practice. Laser sintering, which is a laser powder bed fusion technique, is a versatile and common 3D printing technology, which enables compact and high-quality products. Polyamide 12, a popular 3D printing material, provides reliable mechanical and thermal properties. Weaknesses in applying this technology for polyamide 12 include incomplete information regarding the application of various types of additives and different printing orientations with respect to the properties. This study aimed to investigate the influence of various additives (including carbon fiber, glass fiber, flame retardant, and aluminum powder) combined with polyamide 12, using processing of predefined powder refreshing mixture on the properties of a finished product. The thermal, surface, and mechanical properties of samples printed with five different polyamides 12-based powders at three different print orientations were investigated. It was found that the inclusion of additives decreases the tensile strength and increases the surface roughness of printed components—however, the toughness increases. The results can assist designers in selecting an appropriate material that will produce a finished part with the required properties for a given application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, additive manufacturing—also called 3D printing—represents a well-established technology in the field of the processing of various types of materials manufacturing products used in many industrial sectors. The most common type of 3D printing uses the fused filament fabrication (FFF) method, in which materials based on thermoplastics or elastomers are processed into filaments. Much effort was dedicated to improving the properties and processing of such printed filaments, and various types of inorganic and organic additives have been found to play a beneficial role. One of them, calcium carbonate (CaCO3), is standardly used as filler for the processing of polymeric materials. However, it is well-known from its different applications that CaCO3 crystals may represent particles of different morphologies and shapes that may have a crucial impact on the final properties of the resulting products. For this reason, three different synthetic polymorphs of CaCO3 (aragonite, calcite, and vaterite) and commercially available calcite powders were applied as fillers for the fabrication of polymeric filaments. Analysis of obtained data from different testing techniques has shown significant influence of filament properties depending on the type of applied CaCO3 polymorph. Aragonite particles showed a beneficial impact on the mechanical properties of produced filaments. The obtained results may help to fabricate products with enhanced properties using 3D printing FFF technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to analyze selected properties of beech wood (Fagus sylvatica L.) treated by one-sided surface charring. Specimens were one-side charred with a hot plate using several time-temperature combinations (from 200 to 400 °C). Characteristics such as colour, discoloration, surface roughness, fire resistance, total carbohydrate content at several wood layers and decay resistance were evaluated. Surface charring was applied to the radial and tangential surfaces. Colour measurements showed that the surface of the wood turned grey due to charring. In addition to colour measurements, other experiments showed significant differences between radial and tangential specimens due to their different structures. The higher the temperature used in treating them, the lower the roughness values for radial specimens, while the trend for tangential specimens was the opposite. A smoother surface is more fire resistant, so radial specimens are generally better in this regard. Tangential specimens are more susceptible during preparation to forming cracks that impair flame resistance because a continuous protective densified layer is not formed. The determination of total carbohydrates revealed significant changes at various wood depths after surface charring. These changes were more predictable in radial specimens due to the annual ring orientation, because each layer consisted of a similar earlywood/latewood ratio. Finally, when decay resistance was assessed, weight loss was found to be lower in all specimens than in the references. The results suggest that charring at a particular combination of temperature and time improved the investigated properties of the surface-modified beech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]