Feasibility investigation of gears manufactured by fused filament fabrication

This paper describes the production, quality and tests of plastic gears made by fused filament fabrication (FFF). Different 3D printers of low and high quality and four different materials were tested: PLA, ABS, PA and PA carbon fiber composite. After optimizing the print parameters, various gears were manufactured and tested. The geometry and the test procedure were executed based on the VDI 2736 standard. This paper is a feasibility study of the fatigue strength of different gears. There is no material data set for the specific FFFMaterials and certain printers. The results show, that the quality of the printing process and the accuracy of the geometry are not responsible for the failure mode. The most important parameter is the friction coefficient of the different materials. Due to friction the tooth root will heat up and effect the material properties. PLA gears failed due to the low melting temperature, whereas ABS and PA gears failed on tooth root fracture