Fused filament fabrication of PLA: the role of interlayer adhesion on the mechanical performances

Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique enables to produce very complex shape object by using a bottom-up approach. Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is employed for production of plastic parts, by extruding a filament on a deposition plate and building the object layer-by-layer. The adhesion between layers plays a key role in final mechanical performances of polymeric parts produced by using FFF. In the present work, samples were produced through the FFF technique adopting three deposition velocities and two bed temperatures. Evolution of the temperature at the interface between adjacent layers during the process was monitored. Mechanical proprieties were evaluated through tensile tests and correlated to the thermal history experienced by the materials during deposition process.