Mechanical characterization of biocompatible PEEK by FDM

The flexibility and rapidity in manufacturing of high-strength but lightweight polymeric parts has become more widespread in aerospace development and human implants. As a typical semicrystalline thermoplastic, poly ether-ether-ketone (PEEK) has desirable mechanical properties and environmental resistance over extended temperatures. In this paper, the Fused Deposition Modelling (FDMTM) was employed to fabricate the PEEK samples for performing tensile tests to investigate the relationship between various thermal processing conditions (the raster angle, nozzle temperature and ambient temperature) in FDM process, post heat treatment temperature after FDM and the mechanical properties of pure PEEK material. The fracture mechanisms was revealed. A phenomenological model was established to represent the change of the maximum tensile strength (MTS) with the processing conditions for FDM samples. Beyond that, the mechanical performance of the manufactured cranial implant was investigated by uniaxial static compression tests. The finds of this work provide guidelines for FDM of PEEK to the clinical implementation and application of cranial implants.