Effect of phosphate/fluoride electrolytes on mass and dimensional stability of anodization bath manufactured by FDM

Present paper is an experimental study on mass and dimensional stability of components manufactured by additive technology of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) from PLA and ABS filaments, components to be subjected to the action of aqueous phosphate/fluoride solutions during the process of surface modification and TiO2 nanotubes development on the surface of titanium based materials by electrochemical anodization. Several specimens were printed with 30% and 100% fill density; we used control samples of PP, PLA and ABS in order to compare the results. The specimens and control samples were in contact with 1M H3PO4 + 0.5 wt% HF electrolyte, for 2 hours and 48 hours. Regarding mass stability we found that the specimens’ mass is increasing after exposure to electrolyte, showing absorption on to the material, the mass gain being up to 0.2% from initial mass. Dimensional stability is also questionable; there are modifications of up to 0.05 mm after 48 hours exposure to electrolyte. All of our results lead to the conclusion that, even if FDM has certain advantages in terms of flexibility of design and short design to product time, drawbacks appear in terms of mass and dimensional stability when the printed components work in aqueous acid solutions, raising questions regarding their safe utilization over time.