Optimization of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) support parameters for fused deposition modelling (FDM) by using design of experiments (DOE)

Abstract

This study aims to determine the optimum Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) support parameter settings for printing hollow samples using 3D printing technique. The hollow samples were made from Polylactic Acid (PLA) material and the support are from Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA). Full-factorial DOE with two levels of factorial studies for five manipulating factors which are dense support layer (0; 0.5; 1), percentage of support thickness (70%; 90%; 100%), percentage of support infill density (15%; 20%; 25%) and temperature of water (30 °C; 40 °C; 50 °C) were chosen and carried out to study its interaction and effects on the responses such as print time, support material usage and dissolution time of PVA support in the water. A total number of 20 runs with 4 center points are generated in the Design Expert 10 software. Each of the hollow samples together with the support is immersed in warm water to determine the Dissolution Time of PVA Support. From the experiment, it has been found that the run number 5, 7, 11 and 12 gives the best support parameter settings. These runs produce the best optimal outcomes whereby the average print time is 38 min, the Percentage of support material Usage is 0.96 m and the dissolution time of PVA support in water is 60 min. The Analysis of Anova (ANOVA) proves that minimum interaction effects exist between the factors and responses because each factor behaves independently towards a response. The best PVA parameter support settings reduce the support material usage, printing time and printing cost.