A Review on Uncertainty Cases in Additively Manufactured Polylactic Acid Using Fused Filament Fabrication Technique

Abstract

Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most frequently used materials in Additive Manufacturing (AM) because it is considered as a nontoxic, biodegradable, and biocompatible material. In addition, Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), or also known as Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), is a desirable additive manufacturing technique to manufacture PLA because of its relatively low cost and geometrical flexibility. However, the uncertainty existence can lead to unpredicted failure scenarios, which highly can affect the quality and cost. This review focusses on the different works carried out on the identification of the effective parameters in the additively manufactured PLA when using FFF technique in order to provide the reader with an overview about different uncertainty cases for these common material and technique. Here, we seek to reduce the likelihood of failures when using the additively manufactured PLA using FFF technique. Some future ideas are suggested to develop new strategies with the object of improving several objectives such cost, quality, and productivity. In this way, we do not only need to obtain rapid prototyping, but rapid, economic, and sustainable manufacturing strategies are needed to be closer to a sustainable environment.