Study on the effect of fused deposition modelling (FDM) process parameters on tensile strength and their optimal selection

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a transformative method to industrial fabrication that enables the creation of lighter, stronger parts and systems. Additive manufacturing uses data computer-aided-design (CAD) software or 3D object scanners to direct hardware to deposit material, layer upon layer, in precise geometric shapes. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one of the mainly used AM techniques for fabricating prototypes and functional parts in common engineering plastics. At various process parameters, mechanical properties of printed parts are significantly changed. Therefore, it is important to examine the influence of printing parameters on quality of printing part. This article provides an experimental investigation for the quality analysis of process parameters on printed parts using fused deposition modelling (FDM) in terms of tensile strength. The experiment were carried out using Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array technique by varying process parameters such Infill density, Infill pattern and Layer thickness using Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) print material. Taguchi method are applied for the Multi-objective optimization of characteristics of Printing parts. ANOVA, S/N ratio, and 3D surface plot were used for analysis of experimental result and study the effect of process parameters. Results of Taguchi optimization indicates that the optimal FDM parameters for Tensile strength (UTS) are the layer height at 0.19mm, the Infill rate at 45 %, Build speed at 180 mm/min and the build temperature at 240 ºC which gives maximum UTS =39.094 MPa at maximum value of S/N ratio = 31.8422