Optimising Process Parameters of Fused Filament Fabrication to Achieve Optimum Tensile Strength

摘要

Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology is one of the most emerging manufacturing technologies in the current time frame for small scale to complex production compared with conventional methods. AM presents a considerable amount of possibilities, with many areas (aerospace industry, biomedical field, construction & architecture industry, and food industry) for further development and challenges. Predicting the impact of variation in process parameters (layer thickness, orientation, and melting temperature) on a final manufactured product is one of the critical challenges in the domain. The fused filament fabrication process is used for the fabrication of parts, which is highly flexible, robust, and economical. In this work, Taguchi Design of Experiment is used to optimize process parameters for maximizing tensile strength of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic samples. The samples are printed as per the defined ASTM D638 plastic standard. Using Analysis of Variance technique, the obtained experimental results are validated and predicted for the optimum value of tensile strength under defined conditions.