PSI - Issue 72

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ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 72 (2025) 470–478

12th Annual Conference of Society for Structural Integrity and Life (DIVK12) Thermo-mechanical resistance of additively manufactured carbon fiber-reinforced PLA Miloš Vorkapić a, *, Marija Baltić b , Bojana Fidanovski c , Miloš Vasić d , Danica Bajić c, * a University of Belgrade, Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy - National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, 11000 Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, Serbia b University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Kraljice Marije 16, 11120 Belgrade, Serbia c Military Technical Institute, Ratka Resanovića 1, 11030 Belgrade , Serbia d IMS Institute, Bulevar vojvode Mišića 43, 11040 Belgrade, Serbia Abstract In this work, additively manufactured composite samples based on polylactic acid reinforced with carbon fibers, were studied from the aspect of their tensile strength, impact toughness, hardness, and thermal resistance, with respect to 3D printing orientation. In this technology, it is known that the printing parameters significantly impact the realization of the prototypes or the properties of the final products. The polylactic acid filament with incorporated carbon fibers reinforcement (PLA-CF) was used in additive manufacturing process of the composite samples. The samples for thermo-mechanical characterization were prepared using a BambuLab X1-Carbon 3D printer. In total, 27 tensile test samples and 27 impact test samples were examined according to the defined printing parameters: printed in 3 axes, 3 specimens for each testing, and tests were done at 3 temperatures (-30°C, +20°C and +50°C). During the realization of the samples, the layer height was 0.1 mm and the infill density was 90%. Differential scanning calorimetry was applied to determine the glass transition temperature of the material, and FTIR to examine interactions of PLA with CF. Due to the reinforcement with carbon fibers, PLA-CF has significantly better mechanical properties than the essential PLA filament. Solid parts produced by this technology are necessary nowadays for installation in places under substantial mechanical loads and require good heat resistance. The observed mechanical characteristics of the additively manufactured material provide good starting point for its potential use in the production of spare parts for automotive, nautical, sports industry as well as in lightweight aircrafts constructions and various protective materials. © 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of Aleksandar Sedmak, Branislav Djordjevic, Simon Sedmak Dr. Simon Sedmak, ssedmak@mas.bg.ac.rs, Innovation Center of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Belgrade, Serbia

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +381112051549; fax: -. E-mail address: worcky@nanosys.ihtm.bg.ac.rs , danica.bajic@mod.gov.rs

2452-3216 © 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of Aleksandar Sedmak, Branislav Djordjevic, Simon Sedmak Dr. Simon Sedmak, ssedmak@mas.bg.ac.rs, Innovation Center of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Belgrade, Serbia 10.1016/j.prostr.2025.08.129