Influence of process parameters on mechanical strength, build time, and material consumption of 3D printed polylactic acid parts

Abstract The purpose of the study is to examine and analyze the effect of different process parameters of fused deposition modeling process, namely, nozzle diameter, build orientation, infill density, raster pattern, layer height, and print speed on the response variables, namely, tensile strength, build time, and material consumption. Taguchi L 27 orthogonal array experimental design has been adopted to print the PLA samples for experimental investigation. The optimum values of process parameters are obtained from the signal‐to‐noise ratio values of responses. The performed confirmation tests revealed that optimum process parameters combination determined through Taguchi method improves the tensile strength, reduce the build time, and material consumption significantly. Confirmation from analysis of variance (ANOVA) results revealed that the build orientation and nozzle diameter are the most influential process parameters for all the considered responses. The infill density is found to be an influential process parameter for material consumption. Further, the developed regression models for prediction of response characteristics and normal probability plots show significance of coefficients for predicted models. Results from the confirmation test revealed that the PLA part printed with optimum settings ((Nd) 3 ‐(Bo) 3 ‐(Id) 3 ‐(Rp) 1 ‐(Lh) 2 ‐(Ps) 1 )) for tensile strength shows maximum tensile strength of 61.24 MPa with an improvement of 6.26%. Similarly, the part printed with the optimum settings ((Nd) 3 ‐(Bo) 1 ‐(Id) 2 ‐(Rp) 1 ‐(Lh) 3 ‐(Ps) 3 ) for build time takes 0.32 h of time with a reduction of 8.57%. The part printed with the optimum settings ((Nd) 1 ‐(Bo) 1 ‐(Id) 1 ‐(Rp) 2 ‐(Lh) 1 ‐(Ps) 2 ) for material consumption consumes material of 7.6 g with a reduction of 2.56%. Fracture mechanics results depict that variation of process parameters during the fabrication of samples has significant influence on the tensile strength.