An assessment of PLA/wood with PLA core sandwich multilayer component tensile strength under different 3D printing conditions

Abstract

Material extrusion is increasingly used to make functional parts in small batches that are challenging to produce with traditional machining. Also, intensive efforts are being made to develop new eco–friendly materials. This work investigates the strength of multilayer samples made in sandwich form with 4–5–4 layers of 0.3 mm layer thickness, externally with polylacticacid wood (PLA/wood, 61.5 % of specimens' material) and internally with pure PLA (38.5 % of specimens' material), under tensile loads. The intent is to investigate the possibility of manufacturing biocompatible components that take advantage of the excellent surface properties of wood externally and the durability properties of PLA internally. For this purpose, a designed experiment following the Taguchi L₉ orthogonal array was prepared, and nine samples were fabricated: three with pure PLA, three with a sandwich PLA/wood–PLA–PLA/wood form, and three with composite PLA/wood form. Printing speed and temperature were varied during the experiment, and the results were examined using the analysis of means and residuals. Sandwich specimens improve tensile strength and elastic modulus by 100 % and 50 % compared to PLA/wood components while exhibiting slightly better surface roughness parameters, i.e., Ra and Rz, about ∼10 % lower values. Additionally, even if PLA parts showed better strength and surface texture than sandwich parts (∼100 % and ∼56 % higher tensile strength and elastic modulus), they had lower performance in terms of PLA–PLA/wood material ratio, i.e., 160 % more PLA than sandwich parts. The findings of this research, with the potential to design functional and sustainable new products with optimal performance, are significant and can be exploited in various industries.