Thermo-Mechanical Characterization of PLA Components for Fused Deposition Fabrication

Abstract

One of the additive manufacturing technique known as Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) has been proven to be the best alternative for fabricating Polylactic Acid (PLA) samples. PLA is a versatile commercial biodegradable thermoplastic based on lactic acid. PLA material has been widely used in various healthcare applications, cardiovascular implants, dental niches, drug carriers, orthopaedic interventions, cancer therapy, food packaging containers, etc. Improved material properties enable PLA suitable for floor mats, pillar cover, door trim, front panel and ceiling material of car, cover spare wheel or translucent roof in hybrid concept vehicles. However, the mechanical and thermal properties of parts manufactured by the FDM technique mainly depends on the process parameters. There is a need to understand the effect of the process parameters on potential materials like PLA. This study investigates the effects of three crucial FDM parameters, i.e., layer thickness, infill geometry and number of perimeter on the mechanical and thermal properties of PLA material. The samples will be fabricated using FDM as per ASTM standards. The tensile strength, flexural strength and glass transition temperature will be measured for fabricated PLA samples. The mean effect of each process parameters on the tensile strength and flexural strength.Also studied the effect of the interaction of selected parameters for study are discussed. From the result analysis, it is found that infill geometry and no. of perimeter have a significant influence on the tensile strength and also found that layer height and infill geometry have a significant influence on the flexural strength.Analysis of tensile test results show that specimen printed at 0.100 mm layer height , gyroid type infill geometry and 6 no. of perimeter has maximum tensile strength. Analysis of flexural test results show that specimen printed at 0.150 mm layer height , concentric type infill geometry and 4 no. of perimeter has maximum flexural strength.Glass transition temperature test result shows it is depend on the pre-processing of material before testing. The maximum glass transition temperature of material is 108.3 °C for chip of printed material .The finite element simulation will also be performed for PLA samples to predict stress and failure behaviour. Various approaches for the finite element method have been adopted and compared to improve the accuracy of simulation results.