Study of the influence of copper reinforcement on the tribological properties of parts obtained by fused filament fabrication

Abstract

The excellent tribological properties of copper are well known, therefore it is commonly used in components whose tribological  characteristics have a high impact. Thanks to the characteristics of Additive Manufacturing it is possible to manufacture parts incorporating copper particles. However, the main mechanical studies are related to performance under tensile-compression or bending conditions and the tribological properties remain understudied and this means that there is no knowledge of the possible performance of parts obtained using additive techniques with these particles. For this reason, this article proposes to carry out a study on a polymeric Additive Manufacturing process, specifically, Fused Filament Manufacturing, which is the most widely used process at present and where it is possible to obtain thermoplastic matrix filaments with different types of reinforcements. In this case, a reinforcement of metallic nature will be chosen, such as copper particles, where the properties of this  material will be exploited. The aim is to find out how the basic manufacturing parameters, layer thickness and temperature, influence the tribological behaviour of the parts obtained with this process.