3D printing in additive manufacturing is con-sidered as one of key technologies to the future high-pre-cision manufacturing in order to benefit diverse industriesin building construction, product development, biomedic...3D printing in additive manufacturing is con-sidered as one of key technologies to the future high-pre-cision manufacturing in order to benefit diverse industriesin building construction, product development, biomedicalinnovation, etc. The increasing applications of 3D printedcomponents depend primarily on their significant merits ofreduced weight, minimum used materials, high precisionand shorter production time. Furthermore, it is very crucialthat such 3D printed components can maintain the same oreven better material performance and product quality asthose achieved by conventional manufacturing methods.This study successfully fabricated 3D printed mechanicaltesting samples of PLA and PLA/wood fibre composites.3D printing parameters including infill density, layer heightand the number of shells were investigated via design ofexperiments （DOE）, among which the number of shells wasdetermined as the most significant factor for maximisingtensile strengths of PLA samples. Further, DoE workevaluated the effect of material type （i.e., neat PLA andPLA/wood fibres） and the number of shells on tensile,flexural and impact strengths of material samples. It issuggested that material type is the only predominant factorfor maximising all mechanical strengths, which howeverare consistently lower for PLA/wood fibre compositeswhen compared with those of neat PLA. Increasing thenumber of shells, on the other hand, has been found toimprove almost all strength levels and decrease infillcavities.展开更多
文摘3D printing in additive manufacturing is con-sidered as one of key technologies to the future high-pre-cision manufacturing in order to benefit diverse industriesin building construction, product development, biomedicalinnovation, etc. The increasing applications of 3D printedcomponents depend primarily on their significant merits ofreduced weight, minimum used materials, high precisionand shorter production time. Furthermore, it is very crucialthat such 3D printed components can maintain the same oreven better material performance and product quality asthose achieved by conventional manufacturing methods.This study successfully fabricated 3D printed mechanicaltesting samples of PLA and PLA/wood fibre composites.3D printing parameters including infill density, layer heightand the number of shells were investigated via design ofexperiments （DOE）, among which the number of shells wasdetermined as the most significant factor for maximisingtensile strengths of PLA samples. Further, DoE workevaluated the effect of material type （i.e., neat PLA andPLA/wood fibres） and the number of shells on tensile,flexural and impact strengths of material samples. It issuggested that material type is the only predominant factorfor maximising all mechanical strengths, which howeverare consistently lower for PLA/wood fibre compositeswhen compared with those of neat PLA. Increasing thenumber of shells, on the other hand, has been found toimprove almost all strength levels and decrease infillcavities.
