An Experimental Investigation of Surface Roughness and Print Duration on FDM Printed Polylactic Acid (PLA) Parts

Abstract

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is a polymer based material extrusion process which comes under additive manufacturing. PLA (polylactic acid) is a biodegradable polymer which has diverse use in medical applications. Nine number of PLA specimens have been designed and developed using Stratasys F170 FDM printer. Infill angle and orientation angle with three levels are considered as input process parameters. Surtronic $3+$ surface profilometer has been selected to conduct surface roughness measurement. The lowest value of roughness average (Ra) is registered as 5.29 µm at 0° infill angle and 9° orientation angle. Print duration has a pivotal role in making a product at a low cost and just-in-time production. Printing duration of each sample is recorded. Print duration is directly affected by orientation angle. At orientation angle, 5 minute print time has been achieved, which is found to be the lowest among all others. It is observed here also that the staircase effect may be responsible for bad surface finish of 3D printed parts.