Additive manufacturing for fused deposition modeling of carbon fiber–polylactic acid composites: the effects of process parameters on tensile and flexural properties

Abstract

In this paper the effect of process parameters on the tensile and flexural properties of carbon fiber–polylactic acid (CF-PLA) composites is analyzed. We used a commercially available fused deposition modeling (FDM) three-dimensional (3D) printer and CF-PLA. When there are a variety of processing parameters, especially when no linear processing parameters are defined, the exact factors required in the design of experiments (DOEs) is hard to research. Furthermore, a large number of samples are needed to discover the optimum processing parameters. The key effects of four processing parameters for the FDM process, i.e. layer height, infill density, printing speed and infill pattern, were examined in this work using the Taguchi DOE. The mechanical characteristics of the fabricated FDM components expressed the power of the processing parameters. We used the Taguchi L9 range of nine runs with three specimens each, so 54 different processes were used to make a total of 54 specimens. In comparison with the 3D computer-aided design model, the measurements of the manufactured specimens were tested according to the standards ASTM D638 and ASTM D790. Variance analysis (ANOVA) was generated using Design Expert tools in order to assess the importance of the variables and their interactions for tensile and flexural strength. After performing ANOVA we obtained the exact parameters for which the mechanical properties are highest.