Effect of blend ratios and printing parameters on PLA/TPU shape memory polymer performance

IF 6 2区材料科学 Q1 MATERIALS SCIENCE, CHARACTERIZATION & TESTING

Polymer Testing Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-24 DOI:10.1016/j.polymertesting.2026.109157

Muhammad Nafiz Hamidi , Jamaluddin Abdullah , Abdus Samad Mahmud , Hamidreza Namazi

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The advancement in soft robotics and intelligent systems has triggered interest in PLA/TPU shape memory polymer, due to their promising combined properties and the coupling effects that enable the development of flexible and dynamic robotic systems. Additive manufacturing (AM) printing parameters are known to directly affects shape memory performance of PLA/TPU. The effect of AM printing parameters on shape memory performance, commonly measured from the shape recovery ratio (R_r%) and shape fixity ratio (R_f%), has not be extensively studied and thus, not well understood. This study investigates the combined effects of TPU content and key printing parameters on both shape memory performances. Six blend ratios comprising pure PLA, and PLA/TPU ratio by weight of 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, 60/40 and 50/50 were selected and evaluated. Taguchi L9 orthogonal array experimental design was employed and four printing parameters which are printing speed, raster angle, layer thickness and printing temperature were selected. The results show that increasing TPU content reduces both R_r% and R_f% and pure PLA exhibits the highest value for both cases. Next, among the printing parameters, layer thickness and printing temperature were found to be most and least influential factors for R_r% respectively. In terms of R_f%, the parameters with highest and lowest impact are raster angle and printing speed respectively. However, ANOVA analysis results confirmed that the printing parameters had minimal and statistically insignificant effects on R_f%. Confirmation experiments using optimized parameters revealed that the specimens printed using the generated printing parameters can mainly enhance the R_r% values with the highest increment of 3.975%. This work provides insight and guidance on the influence of AM printing parameters on shape memory performance of PLA/TPU shape memory polymer, which is critical in robotics and intelligent systems.

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共混比和打印参数对PLA/TPU形状记忆聚合物性能的影响

软机器人和智能系统的进步引发了人们对PLA/TPU形状记忆聚合物的兴趣，因为它们具有很好的组合特性和耦合效应，能够开发灵活和动态的机器人系统。增材制造（AM）打印参数直接影响PLA/TPU的形状记忆性能。增材打印参数对形状记忆性能的影响，通常从形状恢复比（Rr%）和形状不动比（Rf%）来衡量，尚未得到广泛的研究，因此，没有很好地理解。本研究考察了TPU含量和关键打印参数对两种形状记忆性能的综合影响。选取纯PLA和PLA/TPU重量比分别为90/10、80/20、70/30、60/40和50/50的6种共混比例进行评价。采用田口L9正交阵列实验设计，选择打印速度、光栅角度、层厚和打印温度4个打印参数。结果表明，增加TPU含量可以降低Rr%和Rf%，纯PLA在这两种情况下都表现出最高的值。其次，在打印参数中，层厚和打印温度分别是对Rr%影响最大和最小的因素。在Rf%方面，影响最大的参数是光栅角，影响最小的参数是打印速度。然而，方差分析结果证实，印刷参数对Rf%的影响很小，统计上不显著。利用优化后的打印参数进行的验证实验表明，使用生成的打印参数进行打印的样品，其Rr%值的增幅最大，达到3.975%。这项工作为增材打印参数对PLA/TPU形状记忆聚合物形状记忆性能的影响提供了见解和指导，这在机器人和智能系统中至关重要。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Polymer Testing 工程技术-材料科学：表征与测试

CiteScore

10.70

自引率

5.90%

发文量

328

审稿时长

44 days

期刊介绍： Polymer Testing focuses on the testing, analysis and characterization of polymer materials, including both synthetic and natural or biobased polymers. Novel testing methods and the testing of novel polymeric materials in bulk, solution and dispersion is covered. In addition, we welcome the submission of the testing of polymeric materials for a wide range of applications and industrial products as well as nanoscale characterization. The scope includes but is not limited to the following main topics: Novel testing methods and Chemical analysis • mechanical, thermal, electrical, chemical, imaging, spectroscopy, scattering and rheology Physical properties and behaviour of novel polymer systems • nanoscale properties, morphology, transport properties Degradation and recycling of polymeric materials when combined with novel testing or characterization methods • degradation, biodegradation, ageing and fire retardancy Modelling and Simulation work will be only considered when it is linked to new or previously published experimental results.