Effect of Process Parameters on Mechanical Strength of Fabricated Parts using the Fused Deposition Modelling Method

This study investigated the effects of process parameters on mechanical properties of fabricated parts of the Polylactic acid (PLA) materials using fused deposition modeling (FDM) in 3D printing Technology. First, Taguchi method in the design of experiment (DOE) approach was applied to generate a design matrix of three process parameters namely; printing speed, extrusion temperature and layer thickness. A L9 array with 9 specimens was used for fabrication under various process parameters by the Builder 3D printer. Tensile test was implemented and recorded in accordance with ASTM D368 standard. Achieved data were analyzed using the Minitab software to show the effect of each process parameter on mechanical properties. Secondly, a regression model was developed to predict the trend of response in case of change in setting of parameters and estimating the optimal set of process parameters which creates the strongest FDM parts. The achieved optimum parameters were used to validate the fabricated samples for tensile testing. According to the results, the best mechanical strength of fabricated parts was achieved with printing speed of 48 mm/s, extrusion temperature of 220 degree of celsius (C) and the layer thickness of 0.15 mm. Also, the extrusion temperature was the most influencing factor on ultimate tensile stress.