The effect of nozzle hole diameter of 3D printing on porosity and tensile strength parts using polylactic acid material

Abstract

Nozzle hole diameter of 3D printer (3DP) can be varied to obtain required product quality as well as to reduce manufacturing times. The use of larger diameter may accelerate manufacturing times of products, yet the product quality, including the mechanical properties, still needs to be investigated profoundly. The purpose of this work is to investigate experimentally the effect of nozzle hole diameter of 3DP to the surface quality, accuracy, and the strength of the product. The specimens were manufactured by fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D printing using polylactic acid (PLA) as the filaments.Bed temperature, extruder temperature and printing speed were set to be 60°C, 200°C and 80 mm/s respectively. The thickness of each layer was set at the ratio of 20% to the nozzle hole diameter. Infill pattern was determined by using line type of 100%. Nozzle hole diameter of 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6mmwas compared in thiswork. The results show that bigger nozzle hole diameter enhanced the density and tensile strength of the products thought it was not linearly correlation.