Investigation on Influence of Infill Pattern and Layer Thickness on Mechanical Strength of PLA Material in 3D Printing Technology

Abstract

This report is influencing infill density and layer thickness on mechanical strength of Poly-lactic Acid (PLA) material in three-dimensional printing machine. According to use Additive Manufacturing technology in PLA material used Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technique. In this project, nine samples are tested for different infill pattern (Zig zag, Triangles & Grid) and different layer thickness (0.2, 0.1 & 0.15) mm by using Taguchi Method. Here we demonstrate an empirical method utilizing a statistical design of experiment technique and standardized mechanical testing which ultimately exposes trends and variable interactions specific to our selected additive manufacturing process. We collect data then converted to stress and strain values in order to construct stress vs. strain diagram and try to use a few basic formulas, mechanical properties such as modulus, yield stress, ultimate tensile stress, and percent elongation were able to be determined for each geometrical infill density and thickness layers. The results for each sample were then compared and made design of experiments (DoE) for research best design and quality. A computer simulation like NX was also done in order to reflect on the predictability of the printed specimen’s performance. The aim of doing this report is how to operate 3D printing and use relevant application such as NX, Cura Software, Weka, Minitab, MATLAB and implementation of tensile strength for our samples.