An exploration of polymer adhesion on 3D printer bed

Abstract

One of the problems in Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) 3D Printing process is that the extruded plastic filament tends to shrink and warp from the printing platform. The purpose of this research is to explore the warping deformation problem in four aspects i.e. curling, pincushion effect, trapezoid deformation and blocked shrinkage that usually occur in the process. Epoxy resin based adhesive was applied onto the printing platform to reduce and eliminate the warping deformation. Afterwards, by applying the adhesive, the 3D printed models were measured their curling, pincushion, trapezoid and blocked shrinkage using laser scanner and metrology software. The result shows that the pincushion and trapezoid has low deformation compared to curling and blocked shrinkage. Blocked shrinkage effect shows the highest warping deformation value. In comparison of materials, PLA shows the best geometry result with low warping deformation value and the best surface finish.

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An exploration of polymer adhesion on 3D printer bed
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2017 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 210 012062
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International Technical Postgraduate Conference IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 210 (2017) 012062 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/210/1/012062
An exploration of polymer adhesion on 3D printer bed
M A Nazan1*, F R Ramli1, 2*, M R Alkahari1, 2, M A Abdullah1, 2, M N Sudin1, 2
1Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Hang
Tuah Jaya, 76100 Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia
2Centre for Advanced Research on Energy, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka,
Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100 Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia
E-mail: *muhd_afdhal@hotmail.com and faiz@utem.edu.my
Abstract. One of the problems in Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) 3D Printing process is
that the extruded plastic filament tends to shrink and warp from the printing platform. The
purpose of this research is to explore the warping deformation problem in four aspects i.e.
curling, pincushion effect, trapezoid deformation and blocked shrinkage that usually occur in
the process. Epoxy resin based adhesive was applied onto the printing platform to reduce and
eliminate the warping deformation. Afterwards, by applying the adhesive, the 3D printed
models were measured their curling, pincushion, trapezoid and blocked shrinkage using laser
scanner and metrology software. The result shows that the pincushion and trapezoid has low
deformation compared to curling and blocked shrinkage. Blocked shrinkage effect shows the
highest warping deformation value. In comparison of materials, PLA shows the best geometry
result with low warping deformation value and the best surface finish.
1. Introduction
Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one of the most widely used technique to produce object or part
in the field of 3D printer area [1-2]. 3D printer machine use three dimensional CAD data and form
layer by layer process to produce prototype part. 3D printer generally use thermoplastic plastic
materials such as Polylactic Acid (PLA) and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) materials. These
materials are melt and extruded by the printer extrusion head and moves correspondingly to the
coordinate and position that been set in certain speed [1].
One of the problems in the 3D printing field especially FDM process is that the plastic filament
which is extruded from the machine nozzle tends to shrink and warp from the printing bed platform
[3]. This has been highlighted by several researchers that an adhesive layer between the first layer and
printing platform is required to counter the problem [4-6]. This problem can be reduced by applying
heat to the printing bed where the higher the bed temperature is, the less the deformed shape will be
[7]. Moreover, the warping deformation has also showing warping reduction when applying epoxy
resin based adhesive onto the printing bed [3].
The printing process involved printing onto the printing platform for the first layer of the formation
until the last layer. Each of the layer from the molten plastic is solidified either naturally or by the help
of external cooling process. Due to the cooling effect, the warpage problems are sometimes occur
where it definitely affecting the printed part especially in the geometry size and manufacturing quality.
The warpage problem happens because of the first layer is not stick well and peeled away from the
printing platform due to the adhesion of the first layer with the printing platform such in figure 1 and
2. Young et al [7] has stated that in 3D printer it is an undesirable shape error which is occured in the

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product due to the heat shrinkage phenomenon. The paper also stated that the main reason for
inhomogeneous shrinkage of the parts in the 3D printing process are due to time delayed for the
solidification of the layers. Moreover, the problem is caused by force transmission between the layers
since phase of change from molten plastic to solid during building process. Some of examples of
warpage problems occur in the FDM process are pincushion, trapezoid, curling and blocked
shrinkages [5].
Figure 1. Fused deposition modeling
process [2]
Figure 2. Warpage affect during printing
process
Epoxy resin adhesive is an adhesive that has been used widely all over the world. The adhesive is
proven to be suitable for the repair and restoration of the glass substance in several problem [8-9]. The
epoxy has declared containing 5.0% of organic solvents and 56.5% water based that soluble inside the
water and have non-toxicity effect to the human and environment [10]. By referring to the safety data
sheet, epoxy resin has zero hazard and has harmful effect if it used and handled accordingly to
necessary regulation. The epoxy resin based adhesive used in this experiment is shown as in figure 3
[11].
.
Figure 3. Epoxy resin based adhesive
Thus, the purpose of this paper is to study the relation and the performance of the epoxy resin
based adhesive through the surface preparation for the printing platform during the process. In
addition, this research also study the warping deformation that occur through pincushion, curling,
trapezoid, and blocked shrinkage effects using PLA and ABS material either printing with and without
applying heat on bed.

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2. Experiment characteristics
2.1. Sample Preparation
Figure 4. Dimensioned isometric view with angle
45º of specimen
The experiment was started by sketching the solid model of specimens using solid modelling software,
CATIA V5 with its dimension shows in figure 4. The solid model was sketched with three different
angles of 30º, 45º and 60º, to investigate the warping deformation effect in various angle. Next, the
solid model was sliced by using 3D printer slicer software, Repetier Host that was built with Slic3r
engines to create machine language, G-Code for 3D printer path direction. This slicing process was
required to set up the 3D printer specifications where the infill density, layer temperature, printing
speed and layer height need to be defined. Thus, table 1 shows the printing settings that being used for
this experiment.
Table 1. Printing setting
Preferences
Materials
PLA
ABS
Infill density (%)
13
13
First layer temperature, T (ºC)
235
235
Other layer temperature, T (ºC)
193
230
Printing Speed (mm/s)
40
40
Layer Height (mm)
0.2
0.2
The printing experiment was conducted by using a FDM 3D printer machine, Pursa i3 model 3D
printer machine that has printing area of 180mmx180mmx150mm with glass as the material of
printing platform. Before the printing process began, the printing platform was prepared by applying
the epoxy resin based adhesive and spreading onto the printing area of printing platform. Four
specimens type i.e. ABS without the use of heat bed printing platform, ABS with use of heat bed, PLA
without heat bed, and PLA with heat bed has been print by using 3D Printer for each angles of 30º, 45º
and 60º . Table 2 shows the label for type of specimens used on the experiment.
Table 2. Labelled type of specimens based on material and heat bed
Specimens
Material
Heat bed
1
ABS
Without
2
ABS
With
3
PLA
Without
4
PLA
with

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International Technical Postgraduate Conference IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 210 (2017) 012062 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/210/1/012062
In addition, the printing setting for the layer temperature was set differently between PLA and ABS
material. This is because of the different melting point and different material properties. The bed
temperature setting has been set for ABS and PLA are100ºC and 60ºC respectively.
2.2. Warping Deformation Preparation
Figure 5. Scanning process by Solutionix Rexscan CS2+ laser scanner
After the printing process completed, the next process was scanning the geometry shape that been
printed using the 3D printer. The specimens was scanned using laser scanning and metrology
software; Solutionix Rexscan CS2+ 3D scanner machine and Geomagic Quality 2013 tools software to
compare with the sketched theoretical geometry from drawing. The warping deformation that was
measured are shown in figure 6. The geometry of the sample was compared using 3D and 2D compare
tools that available in the Geomagic software. Moreover, the result also has been figured using
coordinate method which is similar to the conventional method of Coordinate Measuring Machine
(CMM).
Pincushion
Trapezoid
Curling
Blocked shrinkage
Figure 6. Description of warpage deformation [5]
3. Results and discussions
All the sample of specimen is completely printed using the Pursa i3. However, the printing process of
using ABS material without external heat bed had failed where they peeled away from the printing
platform. Therefore, the result of the experiment is only presented with 3 type of printing; ABS with
heat bed, PLA without heat bed and PLA with heat bed.

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Figure 7a. Photograph of specimens (front
view) from left 30º, 45º and 60º
Figure 7b. Photograph of specimens (back
view) from top 30º, 45º, and 60º
Figure 7a and 7b is shows the photograph of printed specimen with angle 30º, 45º and 60º. As
shown in the photograph, the specimen with 30º of angle shows the fewest shape error especially in
the front view of the specimens.
3.1. Measurement results
Data of the measurement has been obtained from the process of laser scanning and metrology process.
It has shown that there is some geometry error based on shape.
Figure 8. Photograph of specimen with angle
45º printed using Polylactic Acid (PLA) material
Figure 9. 3D comparison between actual
drawing and scanned specimen that has been
analyzed using the metrology software with
minimum and maximum labeled for the
spectrum level
Figure 8 and 9 shows an example from one of the printed specimen that went through the 3D
comparison analysis between the actual drawing and the scanned printed specimen. The spectrum
colors shows the comparison of the geometry for each of the specimen. As in the figure, the maximum
and minimum of deformation spectrum are 0.5 mm and -0.5 mm corresponding to the tolerance of the
analysis. The red color shown the positive of deformation spectrum while blue color is the negative of
deformation spectrum and then green color is nearly to the dimension of theoretical. Based on the
analysis data, the maximum and average of the deformation are 0.4994 mm and 0.1388 mm. As in the
figure 9, the rectangular shaped at the center of specimen is shows few of red area while most of top
45°
30°
60°
45°
30°
60°
Min
Max

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surface shown blue color and green. Table 3, 4 and 5 shows the result of deformation error from
measurement of metrology process.
Table 3. Deformation error from measurement from specimens with 30º of angle
Specimens
Pincushion
Trapezoid
Curling
Blocked shrinkages
t
b₁
h₃
b₂
h₁
h₂
d₁
d₂
d₃
h₄
1
0.8168
0.2683
0.4080
0.5732
0.1497
0.0864
9.2111
21.3766
3.1463
0.0833
2
2.4176
1.7934
0.7086
1.2975
0.0179
0.0087
1.6314
17.2267
9.8791
0.0936
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
4
0.7832
0.2176
0.3149
0.0469
0.0376
0.1213
1.0110
20.0640
12.9380
0.0356
Table 4. Deformation error from measurement from specimens with 45º of angle
Specimens
Pincushion
Trapezoid
Curling
Blocked shrinkage
t
b₁
h₃
b₂
h₁
h₂
d₁
d₂
d₃
h₄
1
0.1721
0.1225
0.0076
0.1154
0.0459
0.0219
1.9968
21.8371
0.8987
0.0043
2
0.2115
0.1331
0.0883
0.3917
0.0682
0.0437
1.6837
11.6780
22.9900
0.1041
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
4
0.1699
0.5910
0.1518
0.0508
0.0604
0.1357
10.9160
17.8978
14.0234
0.0284
Table 5. Deformation error from measurement of specimens with 60º of angle
Specimens
Pincushion
Trapezoid
Curling
Blocked shrinkage
t
b₁
h₃
b₂
h₁
h₂
d₁
d₂
d₃
h₄
1
0.4654
0.3159
0.3007
0.5037
0.0564
0.0077
0.0199
20.5490
2.2459
0.0160
2
1.1335
1.2020
0.6418
0.2787
0.0464
0.0137
0.3373
14.7331
14.9542
0.0927
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
4
0.2526
0.4126
0.3976
0.8385
0.2993
0.1957
10.9160
19.8973
3.1310
0.0439

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3.2. Effect of angle
Figure 10. Total deformation of princushion, curling, trapezoid and blocked shrinkage effects.
Figure 10 indicate the results to the pincushion, curling, trapezoid and blocked shrinkage effects
that tabulated form the experiments. The graph was plot based on the total deformation for each
effects. By referring to the plotted graph, pincushion and trapezoid effects resulted from PLA with
heat bed type of specimen has the highest value of deformation especially for the specimens that was
built with 30º of angle. Moreover, based on the result for PLA without heat bed, most of graphs shows
has lower total deformation than other type of specimens. ABS material that has been printed using
heat bed shows that it has lower total deformation compared to PLA with heat bed.
For the curling effect, the result shows that the ABS material that printed using heat bed has high
deformation since it has been built with 45º and 60º of angle. This maybe because of the
environmental factors that has affecting result to the printing process where the solidification of the
material might be different from each other. The ABS material has known issue of solidification in 3D
printing.
The effect of the angle shows that the total deformation has lower value when it built with angled
45º. Therefore, it may conclude that best angle of printing with those material is by using 45º of angle
while the other angle is resulted has higher value of total deformation.

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International Technical Postgraduate Conference IOP Publishing
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3.3. Type of error
Figure 11. Total of warping deformation by type of error from specimens with 45º of angle
Based on the previous result, the experiment shows that the specimens with 45º of angle are the
best compared to the other angle. Thus, figure 11 generally shows the result of total error for the four
type of warping deformation. The pie chart shows the total warping deformation that separated by type
of material and method of printing. This chart shows that most of experiment has high blocked
shrinkages effects. ABS with heat bed shows 2%, 0%, 73% and 25% of pincushion, trapezoid, blocked
shrinkage and curling effects. Respectively. PLA material that printed without heat bed and with heat
bed shows higher blockade shrinkages where 90% and 93% respectively. Apart from that, the
pincushion and trapezoid effects has the lowest deformation among the specimens which is less than
2%. The curling effect shows that ABS material has 25% of deformation while PLA with and without
heat bed has 8% and 6% deformation.
3.4. Effect of material
Figure 12. Influence of
deformation based on total
deformation from material
ABS and PLA with heat
bed
The measured total deformation of the overall effects are shown through the bar chart as in figure
12. The bar chart has shown the pincushion and trapezoid effect has lower deformation than curling
and blocked shrinkage. This result came out similar for both of ABS and PLA material that been print
with heat bed. Moreover, the result shows the blocked shrinkage effect have the highest total
deformation for the both material. Moreover, the ABS material has less deformation compared to PLA
material for the blocked shrinkage effect. However, the ABS exhibit higher deformation for the
curling and pincushion effects compare to PLA material. Based on the chart and the observation, PLA

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 210 (2017) 012062 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/210/1/012062
material gives the best result where the surface finish and the warping deformation is better than ABS
material.
4. Conclusion
Based on the results, it shows that the highest value of deformation is, the lower quality of printing. In
the experiment of the geometry shape, the specimen built with 45º of angle that was been print using
PLA material without heat bed shows the lowest warping deformation. In addition, the results also
shows that blocked shrinkage effect has the highest value of deformation compare to curling,
pincushion and trapezoid. In addition, PLA material has the best material where it has low
deformation for the curling and pincushion effect compared to ABS material. PLA material printed
without heat bed have the lowest total deformation of pincushion, trapezoid and blocked shrinkage
effects with 0.2946mm, 0.1230mm and 22.7401mm respectively.
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