FDM FABRICATED PLA PARTS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF EFFECT OF PROCESS PARAMETERS ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES UNDER COMPRESSIVE AND FLEXURAL LOADING

The present paper describes an experimental investigation on mechanical properties of poly-lactic-acid (PLA) parts under compressive and flexural loading. The PLA parts are fabricated by fused deposition modelling (FDM) technique. In present work, effect of raster angle, raster width and infill density on strength and modulus of parts under compressive and flexural loading is studied. It is found that infill density affects compressive strength and modulus of parts significantly under compressive loading. Compressive properties increase with increase in infill density. Further, it is found that raster width and infill density significantly influence flexural strength and modulus. Flexural properties increase with increase in infill density, and decrease in decrease in raster width. Further, predictive models are developed for responses, and process parameters are optimized using genetic algorithm to maximize the responses.