Investigations on the Wear Rate Properties on 3D Printed Carbon Fiber Reinforced PLA

Fiber-reinforced polymer composites propose exceptional directional mechanical properties, and combining their advantages with the potential of 3D printing has resulted in many novel research fronts. Industries have started using 3D printed components which are rapidly replacing conventional material components in most of the industries. Carbon fiber reinforced Polylactic Acid (PLA) often finds its application in reasonably high loading conditions working at lesser speed like lightweight gears, spanners, nuts, and bolts. Wear reduction is an important factor that plays an important role in prolonging the component's life. Hence, it is crucial to optimize 3D printing parameters to get desired strength according to the application. The aim of this paper is to conduct the wear rate test on the Fused Deposition Modelled (FDM) printed carbon fiber reinforced PLA parts, to identify the optimum printing parameters which are crucial for wear reduction. Two process parameters i.e. fill density and part orientations are selected that are found to have a significant influence on the wear rate of the CRF PLA parts. The specimens are printed in both vertical and horizontal orientation with a 20% increase in fill density for the wear rate experiments. The wear rate tests are carried out using a “pin on disc tribometer” for precise analysis at a controlled speed and loading conditions. The potential of this research work lies in the investigation of the tribological characteristic of 3D printed CRF PLA parts for improving the wear performances.