Investigation of mechanical properties of PLA printed materials under varying infill density

Fused deposition modelling, a rapid prototyping technology, was used to produce various polymer components in which the part is built by layer by layer. PLA is becoming a commonly used thermoplastic in open-source FDM machines for various engineering applications and it is essential that mechanical properties of FDM-processed PLA parts must be properly understood. Hence in this proposed work using PLA material wire filament through FDM technique the specimens are built under optimum process parameters and varying the infill density. The infill density of the PLA printed specimens were varied as 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. The printed specimens as per ASTM standards were taken for mechanical testing and properties like hardness, tensile, impact and flexural strength were measured, it was found that the specimens printed with 100% infill density projected better mechanical properties and with the increase of infill density the mechanical properties of the printed specimens are also found to be increased. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advances in Materials Research-2019.

Automated summary

The study utilized FDM technology to produce PLA printed specimens with varying infill densities, showing that specimens with 100% infill density exhibited better mechanical properties, with an increase in infill density leading to improved mechanical performance of the printed parts.