Experimental Investigation Of The Dependence Of The Mechanical Properties Of Printed Polylactic Acid Parts On The Process Parameters Of Fused Deposition Modeling 3d Printing

Abstract

3D-printing a manufacturing process known as ”additive manufacturing” because it adds material in sequential patterns to generate the desired form rather than removing material to build a part. The process parameters in three-dimensional (3D) fused deposition modeling (FDM) printing have a significant impact on the printed product; therefore, the parameters must be carefully selected to improve the properties of the final product. In view of this, the present paper experimentally and statistically studied the effect of various printing parame ters, namely layer thickness, build orientation, and raster orientation, on printing accuracy, printing time, tensile strength and flexural strength using Polylactic acid (PLA) filament. Based on Taguchi’s mixed model fractional factorial design, 27 experiments were set and the specimens of Polylactic acid are printed on an fused deposition modeling 3D printer and tested for tensile and 3-point bending (flexural strength) using the shimazu AGS-X universal testing machine. Thereafter, the optimal combination of the parameters was selected using Signal-to-Noise ratio (S/N), and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used for indicating the significant parameters and their effect on tensile and flexural strength. And also High-speed infrared imaging was performed using the Telops FAST-IR 2K. The results showed that print ing time decreases as layer thickness decrease and also upright building orientation showed maximum building time. The tensile and flexural strengths of the part were affected by the selected process parameters, including the build orientation, which showed a maximum result at the one-edge build orientation for tensile strength, while the flat build orientation for flex ural strength, the layer thickness of 0.08 mm and 0.16 mm showed a maximum for tensile and flexural strength, respectively, and the raster angle of 0◦/90◦ showed a maximum result. Finally, the building orientations were statistically significant and had a large effect on the results, with the building orientation having the greatest effect on tensile strength (88.837%) and flexural strength (77.347%).