Annealing of Polymer Material PLA for Improved Properties

The aim of the work was to improve the properties of 3D printed products using annealing. The biggest problem that 3D printed products face is internal stress and poor tribological properties, but it can be eliminated by annealing. The material chosen for this work is PLA, which is the most used material for 3D printing. Stress reduction was performed by drying furnace, which is capable of gradually increasing the temperature and therefore does not cause unwanted thermal shock. The drying furnace is fully sufficient for annealing plastics as it is able to maintain temperatures up to 250°C. After annealing, the samples were placed into a UV chamber. With the help of heat and moisture, the deformation of annealed and non-annealed testing bodies was monitored.