Effect of infill density and pattern on the specific load capacity of FDM 3D-printed PLA multi-layer sandwich

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) printing settings allow the existence of differently filled sections together within a piece. That means the use of inhomogeneous internal material structure. Knowing the load capacity that 3D printed plastic parts can withstand leads to the reduction of the filling degree, thus the amount of the used material in certain places. This approach has two advantages during production: (i) less material use and (ii) reduced manufacturing time, both being cost-reducing factors. The present research aims to find the optimal proportions for fabricating a bending test piece with varying filling degrees. To achieve this goal, experimental tests were performed for obtaining tensile strength and modulus of elasticity using different pairs of infill density and pattern. This provided a basis for creating a working mechanical model based on accurate and realistic material properties. Hence, a series of virtual bending test experiments were conducted on a sandwich structure specimen employing Ansys Workbench software. By doing so, the optimal thickness (of the sandwich's inner layer) with the highest specific load capacity for the given filling patterns and densities were determined. To the best of our knowledge, the current procedure of experiments and method of settings optimization were not discussed elsewhere.