Production of biomedical filament and mechanical testing of samples produced by FFF additive technology

This scientific study, which brings completely new results, is characteristically divided into chapters where the authors deal with the extrusion mechanism, filament production, 3D printing of samples, and mechanical testing of samples. This research deals with a current topic in the field of production and testing of filaments composed of biodegradable polymers based on custom made PLA/PHB material. The authors of this study managed to produce and test a new type of biomaterial in the form of a filament called PLA BIOPOLYMER 20. The individual components forming this new type of material are described in the detailed statistics of this scientific article. After optimizing the parameters during single-screw extrusion on a filament maker, where the extrusion temperatures were set to 180° and the subsequent additive manufacturing of samples using FFF technology was started, where "dogbone type 5A" samples were printed. The authors managed to optimize the parameters of additive manufacturing and achieve significant results, which are also represented by individual printed samples, intended for subsequent mechanical testing, specifically for tensile testing. Important testing of materials for mechanical tensile tests was carried out according to generally applicable standards STN EN ISO 527-2, on the Inspekt table 5kN device. By mechanical testing, the individual stresses of the samples were determined. The average stress was 5.28 MPa. The authors compared the values obtained with samples printed from the new type of PLA BIOPOLYMER 20 material with the tension obtained with samples printed from pure PLA filament without admixture of other components. These tests are intended to determine the future application of the given material. This article brings new knowledge in the given field.