There is a critical need for developing medical grade polymer filament to be used for 3D printing. In this work, a new filament made by medical grade thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) was produced by a single-screw extruder, and then tensile dumbbell specimens were printed by a fused deposition modeling (FDM) machine. In the FDM process, the effects of the orientation angle and printing temperature on part quality were studied. For each process, we aimed to achieve good quality parts by evaluating their tensile strength and break elongation. Microstructure analyses were performed on the dumbbell center and fracture surface of the tensile specimens, through the use of USB dignity microscopy. TPU specimens with the best mechanical properties made by FDM have 46.7 MPa tensile strength and 702% break elongation; they were processed under the condition of 215°C temperature and a 45°orientation angle.

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