Enhancing the Dimensional Accuracy of Components Fabricated Using Rapid Prototyping Technique by Optimizing Machine Parameters of a 3D Printer

摘要

This research was focused on enhancing the dimensional accuracy of 3D printed products while studying the effect of 3D printer parameters on the geometry of 3D printed components by conducting a Fractional Factorial DoE. The efficiency of 3D printers is increasing when the layer thicknesses are increasing. MakerBot? have three layer thicknesses (0.1 mm, 0.2 mm and 0.3 mm) and printing efficiency is high when the layer thickness is high (0.3 mm), but the quality, i.e. the dimensional accuracy of the printed product is very low compared with the products printed with small layer thicknesses. This study comprises five MakerBot? 3D printer parameters (extruder temperature, speed while extruding, fan power, number of shells and infill pattern) in order to identify their optimum settings to improve the dimensional accuracy of a 3D printed product with high layer thickness (0.3 mm). The analysis results show that it is difficult to identify common optimum factor settings to enhance the dimensional accuracy of every component of 3D printed product, but it was possible to identify the common factor settings for similar geometries such as spherical shapes, cubic shapes, etc.