Analysis of the Parameters Affecting 3d Printed Parts for Planar and Nonplanar Models

Additive manufacturing has raised its area of application, not only for prototypes but also for final products. Nowadays there is a new approach called nonplanar 3d printing. This approach will reveal superior characteristics of the produced part such as mechanical properties and surface quality. The quality of 3D parts is influenced by several parameters that need to be carefully tuned to obtain a high-quality final product with good mechanical properties. This paper aims to present a study of the process parameters such as layer height, nozzle temperature, printing speed, and infill percentage for the poly-lactic acid (PLA) as a filament material. Then study the influence of these parameters on the hardness and parts resistance to compressive loads on a planar and nonplanar model. To achieve this, a full design of experiments was applied to analyze the influence of these printing parameters. In this study, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the experimental results that describe the relations among the parameters and the mechanical responses obtained. At the end of this study, a full mathematical model is obtained that describes the relationship between the process parameter and the mechanical responses and clarifies the influence of these parameters on the produced part.