3D extrusion printing of 304 stainless steel/polypropylene composites and sintering process optimization

• Published in: Applied physics. A, Materials science & processing Vol. 129; no. 4
• Main Authors: Xu, Teng, Long, Fei, Liang, Yongqi, Zhang, Haiqing, Shi, Shaoqi, Cheng, Yuchuan, Xu, Gaojie, Li, Zhixiang, Ge, Yaqiong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: 3-D printers; Applied physics; Austenitic stainless steels; Binder removal; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Condensed Matter Physics; Extrusion; Fused deposition; Heat treatment; High temperature; Laser applications; Machines; Manufacturing; Materials science; Mechanical properties; Nanotechnology; Optical and Electronic Materials; Optimization; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Polymer matrix composites; Polypropylene; Processes; Raw materials; Sintering (powder metallurgy); Specific gravity; Stainless steel; Surfaces and Interfaces; Tensile strength; Thin Films; Three dimensional printing; Screw extrusion additive manufacturing; Pre-debinding; Sintering
• ISSN: 0947-8396; 1432-0630
• DOI: 10.1007/s00339-023-06470-y

Screw extrusion 3D printing in the low-cost preparation of high-quality metal products, which offers an edge over fused deposition molding (FDM) and laser-based additive manufacturing. In this study, spherical 304 stainless steel (SS304) micronized powder and polypropylene (PP) pellets were used as raw materials to manufacture composite samples of SS304 with a mass fraction of up to 90 wt%. After high-temperature heat treatment, metal samples with good qualities were obtained. The influence of 3D printing paths and heat treatment processes on the microstructure and mechanical properties of printed parts were studied. The results reveal that the samples printed using 27°/152° cross paths achieved a relative density with 95.78% and a tensile strength with 484 MPa after 6 h of sintering at 1280 °C at a pre-debinding rate with 60%. The overall performance is on par with components created using metal injection techniques (MIM), and this work provides the novel proposals for the production of metal parts using affordable 3D printing.