This work features the first-time use of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT), a biobased engineering thermoplastic, for fused deposition modeling (FDM) applications. Additives such as chain extenders (CEs) and impact modifiers are traditionally used to improve the processability of polymers for injection molding; as a proof of concept for their use in FDM, the same strategies were applied to PTT to improve its printability. The filament processing conditions and printing parameters were optimized to generate complete, warpage-free samples. The blends were characterized through physical, thermal, viscoelastic, and morphological analyses. In the optimal blend (90 wt % PTT, 10 wt % impact modifier, and 0.5 phr CE), the filament diameter was improved by ∼150%, the size of the spherulites significantly decreased to 5% of the ∼26 μm spherulite size found in neat PTT, and the melt flow index decreased to ∼4.7 g/10 min. From this blend, FDM samples with a high impact performance of ∼61 J/m were obtained, which are comparable to other conventional FDM thermoplastics. The ability to print complete and warpage-free samples from this blend suggests a new filament feedstock material for industrial and home-use FDM applications. This paper discusses methods to improve hard-to-print polymers and presents the improved printability of PTT as proof of these methods’ effectiveness.

中文翻译：

---

为FDM应用量身定制的提高可再生资源基工程塑料可印刷性的策略

这项工作的特色是首次将聚对苯二甲酸丙二醇酯（PTT）（一种生物基工程热塑性塑料）用于熔融沉积建模（FDM）应用。传统上，使用增链剂（CE）和抗冲改性剂等添加剂来提高聚合物在注塑成型中的可加工性。作为在FDM中使用它们的概念证明，将相同的策略应用于PTT以提高其可印刷性。优化了长丝加工条件和印刷参数，以生成完整的无翘曲样品。通过物理，热，粘弹性和形态分析来表征共混物。在最佳的共混物（90 wt％的PTT，10 wt％的抗冲改性剂和0.5 phr CE）下，长丝直径提高了约150％，在纯PTT中，球晶的尺寸显着减小至〜26μm球晶尺寸的5％，熔体流动指数降低到约4.7 g / 10 min。从这种共混物中，获得了具有约61 J / m的高冲击性能的FDM样品，可与其他常规FDM热塑性塑料相媲美。从这种混合物中打印出完整且无翘曲的样品的能力表明了一种适用于工业和家用FDM应用的新型长丝原料。本文讨论了改善难以印刷的聚合物的方法，并提出了改进的PTT可印刷性，以证明这些方法的有效性。从这种混合物中打印出完整且无翘曲的样品的能力表明了一种适用于工业和家用FDM应用的新型长丝原料。本文讨论了改善难以印刷的聚合物的方法，并提出了改进的PTT可印刷性，以证明这些方法的有效性。从这种混合物中打印出完整且无翘曲的样品的能力表明了一种适用于工业和家用FDM应用的新型长丝原料。本文讨论了改善难以印刷的聚合物的方法，并提出了改进的PTT可印刷性，以证明这些方法的有效性。