A territorial round-robin experiment for the evaluation of mechanical properties of FDM PLA produced by distributed facilities

• Published in: IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering 2021-02, Vol.1038 (1), p.12069
• Main Authors: Vettori, M, Bergonzi, L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algorithms; Manufacturers; Mechanical properties; Printers; Printing; Software
• ISSN: 1757-8981; 1757-899X
• DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/1038/1/012069

Mechanical characteristics of the produced materials through additive manufacturing (AM) are influenced by a multitude of parameters. In particular, Free Filament Fabrication (FFF) is one of the most adopted technologies due to low machine cost and its simplicity. In recent years, a lot of printer manufacturers emerged as well as many printer control software. This proliferation led to the development of non-standardized ways of printing, such as different machines architecture or software algorithms to control the printing process: in this way, the object produced with a combination of a printer and software is rarely directly comparable (in terms of mechanical characteristics) with the same object produced using a different combination. This work aims to investigate possible variations in material mechanical properties due to different combinations of printers and filament manufacturers: to do so, different makers in Parma area have been involved to produce specimens with their equipment maintaining the same geometry and identical printing settings.