Analyzing the Impact of Process Parameters on the Compressive Strength of Polylactic Acid Parts Fabricated via Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has emerged as an innovative manufacturing method to fabricate components directly from Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models by depositing material layer over another layer. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is among the most widely adopted processes in AM techniques due to its easy use, economical nature, and compatibility with thermoplastic polymers such as polylactic acid (PLA). However, the mechanical behaviors of the FDM ۳D printed parts are significantly influenced by manufacturing process parameters, particularly infill density, build orientation, and infill pattern. The present study primarily focused on how these process parameters influence the compressive performance of PLA printed parts to optimize the structural performance. Samples were fabricated with infill densities of ۴۰%, ۶۰%, and ۸۰%, combined with three infill geometries—rectilinear, concentric, and honeycomb—and tested under axial and transverse build orientations. The results reveal that compressive strength generally increases with higher infill density in the axial orientation, reaching a maximum of approximately ۳۹ MPa at ۸۰% infill across all patterns. In contrast, transverse orientation exhibited a peak compressive strength of about ۳۵ MPa at ۶۰% infill with concentric geometry, after which performance declined. Overall, axial builds consistently outperformed transverse builds, highlighting the importance of orientation and density towards optimizing the mechanical properties of PLA printed FDM components.

کلیدواژه ها:

۳D printing ، Build orientation ، Compressive strength ، Fused Deposition Modeling ، infill density ، infill pattern ، poly (lactic acid