Quantifying residual orientation and thermal stress contributions to birefringence in the material extrusion of polylactide.

ABSTRACT: Material extrusion is a common additive manufacturing process that subjects polymers to non-steady deformation and thermal processing to build a customized part. The mechanical properties of these parts are often worse than those of injection-molded specimens due to failures at or near the weld zone between extrudate layers. Chain orientation is often cited as a contribution to mechanical weaknesss at the weld, and it is therefore of critical importance to develop strategies to quantify the magnitude and location of residual chain orientation as a function of printing conditions. Here we use birefringence imaging to characterize the spatial variation in residual stress and residual chain orientation in a glassy polylactide. A combination of retardance measurements and sample thickness meas

SUBMITTER: Kotula AP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11833754 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature