Parametric Investigations of 3D-Printing of Fused Deposition Manufactured (FDM) Structures of Polylactic Acid (PLA)

3D printing is technique of fabricating three dimensional objects from a digital design. In order to produce the well quality 3D printed parts for that proper selection of printing parameters are challenging. This research investigates how speed, temperature and layer thickness influence on the flexural (bending) strength of the ASTM D-790 specimens. A 3D printer with polylactic acid (PLA) filament material has been applied in this investigation. A specimen standard of ASTM D790 has been use as flexural strength test to represents printed part quality. The parametric dependence is investigated through a design of experiments (DOE) as per Taguchi's L9 Array with speed, nozzle temperature and layer thickness. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is performed to identify significant 3D printing process parameter it is observed that temperature and layer thickness are most significant factor for flexural( bending) strength.