Impact Optimization of 3D‐Printed Poly(methyl methacrylate) for Cranial Implants. Issue 11 (30th August 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Petersmann, Sandra; Spoerk, Martin; Huber, Philipp; Lang, Margit; Pinter, Gerald; Arbeiter, Florian
• Is Part Of: Macromolecular materials and engineering. Volume 304:Issue 11(2019)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2019-08-30
• Subjects: 3D printing -- additive manufacturing -- impact testing -- poly(methyl methacrylate) -- polymer implants; Plastics -- Periodicals; Polymers -- Periodicals; Polymerization -- Periodicals; 547.705
• DOI: 10.1002/mame.201900263
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1438-7492

Abstract

Abstract: Material extrusion‐based additive manufacturing, also known as fused filament fabrication (FFF) or 3D printing facilitates the fabrication of cranial implants with different materials and complex internal structures. The impact behavior plays a key role in the designing process of cranial implants. Therefore, the performance of impact tests on novel implant materials is of utmost importance. This research focuses on investigating the dependency of the infill density and pattern on the impact properties of 3D‐printed poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) sandwich specimens including internal rectilinear, gyroid, and 3D‐honeycomb (3D‐HC) structures. 3D‐HC structures show higher impact forces and dissipated energies as well as dynamic stiffness values compared to rectilinear and gyroid structures at the same infill density. 70% infill 3D‐HC and 100% infill rectilinear structures prove to be most promising. In addition, two different optimization techniques to further improve the impact properties of these specimens, namely a material and a topology optimization, are applied. Topology optimization shows promising results until first damage and material optimization regarding dissipated energies. However, both are not able to outperform the 3D‐HC pattern. Abstract : Improving the impact absorption : Besides the high geometric flexibility of 3D printing, the remarkable influence of printing parameters on the material properties is still not fully investigated. By varying the infill pattern and density, the impact energy of 3D‐printed sandwich structures can be adapted. The impact behavior may further be enhanced by applying material and topology optimization techniques.