Effect of Optimised Infill Parameters on the Tensile Properties of MEX Co-polyester Models

Abstract

To optimize the infill parameters and improve the tensile properties of 3D printed polyethylene terephthalate-1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol ester (PETG) models, this study explored the effects of infill thickness, infill flow rate, and infill overlap length on the tensile properties of 3D printed PETG models via the one-way test combined with the Taguchi test. The results of the one-way test showed that the tensile strength and elastic modulus of the PETG models increased with the increase of infill thickness, infill flow rate, and infill overlap length. The results of Taguchi s test showed that the influence of infill parameters on the tensile properties of PETG models was as follows: infill thickness ] infill flow rate ] infill overlap length; the optimized infill parameters were: infill thickness of 1.2 mm, infill flow rate of 120%, and infill overlap length of 2.8 mm, and the tensile strength of the 3D printed PETG models with optimized parameters was 20.13 MPa, and elastic modulus was 1.32 GPa, which gave the best tensile properties.