Influence of Infill Pattern, Infill Ratio on Compressive Strength and Hardness of 3D Printed Polylactic Acid (PLA) Based Polymer

Abstract

In this article, the influence of infill ratio and infill pattern on the compressive strength and hardness of 3D printed polylactic acid (PLA) based polymer are studied. The fused deposition modelling (FDM) technique was used to produce the 3D-printed samples. In the current work, three specimens of each type have been tested with selected infill ratios (30, 50, and 70%) and infill patterns (line, gyroid, and trihexagon). A compression test was done using the general-purpose (EN772-1) manual compression testing machine for blocks, cubes, and cylinders by the standard specification (ASTM D695), and hardness shore-D was tested by using a hand-held durometer (Shore Instruments, Type D), by ASTM D2240-05 (2010) type D. The data were collected and processed. The results showed that the 70 percent infill ratio with a linear pattern had the highest compressive strength. On the other hand, the hardness test shows that the maximum hardness value was found at the base side of the specimens.