Effect of layer thickness on repeatability of 3D printed PLA produced using 3D Espresso F220 / Mohd Ikmal Hisham Abdul Rahim

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) categorized as additive manufacturing process, recognized as the simplest way to accomplish 3D printing. Studies indicate that FDM can be trust to create strong parts or prototypes. However, partial performance issues still exist, which this method must resolve to succeed the conventional manufacturing techniques. One of them is its variable repeatability performance that is debatable when it comes to producing separate runs of the same sample. Printing parameter is one of the factor that play a significant role on the variations of parts produced. In this study, a research was conducted to study the effect of layer thickness on repeatability of 3D printed PLA produced using 3D Espresso F220 machine. Layer thickness was chosen as variable parameter. Five samples of each dog bone (ASTM D638 Type I standard) and straight cut sample for 0.1mm, 0.2mm and 0.3mm layer thickness respectively were produced. The variations of the printed PLA sample determined based on the length, width, thickness and surface roughness reading that were measured and collected. Repeatability performance then been analyzed through One-way ANOVA analysis. This study did reveal that the layer thickness parameter does influence some dimensional quality and repeatability of sample produced. Dog bone’s length having a better repeatability performance when layer thickness of (0.3mm) while for straight cut’s thickness, using lower layer thickness of (0.1mm). This shows that variations in samples properties depends on not only one, but also every printing parameter involved. For each layer thickness, an ideal combination of printing parameter should be define to produce good sample quality. Thus, this study provide further information on the performance of 3D printing.