Universiti Malaysia Perlis

School of Mechatronic Engineering

Final Year Project Proposal

Session 2017/2018

Name : CECELIA CHEE HOOI ERN

Matrix No : 151113316
Programme : RK08 MECHANICAL ENGINEEERING

Project Title : Flexural Strength of commercial polymer (Acetal, PLA and ABS) 3D
printed parts from Fused Filament Fabrication
Supervisor(s): Dr. Shah Fenner Khan bin Mohamad Khan

1. Introduction:

In the year of 1987, when Charles Hull invented 3D printing and coins the term
“Stereo-Lithography”, the manufacturing world has then see a massive growth in both
the application and manufacturing of rapid prototyping machine. The transition of 3D
printer from prototyping to manufacturing is promising since this greatly reduce the
production cycle time [1] . Since the acknowledgement of the significant and impact
of the 3D printing technology, generally the additive manufacturing, or Fused
Filament Fabrication (FFF)in this case, there has been a wide spread of open source
3D printers. The low-cost, open source 3D printers available in the market, were by
and large categorized into three main categories: fully assembled, DIY (Do-It-
Yourself) and commercial system with proprietary system [2] .

Several studies were executed to study the effect of printing conditions or printer
parameters, for instance, air gap, print speed, temperature and number of perimeter on
the strength of the printed parts. Ivan Gajdos et al. focus on studying the effect of the
envelope and liquefier temperature on the structure homogeneity which is represented
by the non-filled volume in the paper [3]. B.H.Lee et al. investigate the connection
between flexibility of an ABS catapult build through rapid prototyping and the
printing parameter including air gap, raster angle, raster width and layer thickness.
The throwing distance of the catapult denote the printed part’s flexibility. In the same
study, Taguchi method and ANOVA were implemented to determine the significance
of the parameters considered [4]. Lanzotti et al. studied the impact of the process
parameter on the mechanical properties of parts fabricated in PLA with an open
source 3D printer. It measure the ultimate tensile strength of the printed parts varying
in three parameters of in-fill orientation, number of perimeters and layer thickness
[2]. Of so many literatures investigated, very few of them put their focus on open
source 3D printer and most of the materials being studied on is either ABS or PLA,
this then come the purpose of this study.
 Universiti Malaysia Perlis
School of Mechatronic Engineering

2. Problem Statement, Scope and Objective:

a) Problem Statement
 Limited literature available on parts produced by open source 3D printer.
 Inadequate literature accessible for polymer such as Acetal.
 Less attention paid in studying the flexural strength of FFF fabricated part
produced on open source 3D printer.
b) Objective(s)
 Evaluate the flexural strength of commercially available polymer materials
for FFF printed parts. Mechanical testing in term of flexural test are
designed, fabricated and tested based on ASTM standard methods for the
FFF printed specimens.
 Statistical tools will be used to investigate the significance of processing
parameters (layer thickness, fill density, and speed of deposition) on the
mechanical properties. Taguchi methods will be used for the design of
experiment. Comparison will be made between the tested commercial
polymer.
c) Scope(s)
 Material : PLA , ACETAL and ABS
 Testing : Flexural Testing (3 point), Scanning electron microscope (SEM)
 Printer Parameter (Variable): Layer Height , Printing Orientation and Infill
Density (as per accessible on the Slic3r software)

3. Background/ Literature Review:

The literature review is being done sequentially with the title of this work.
Flexural strength or as known as bending strength is a mechanical properties which
deal with the material’s stress before it yields in a flexure test [5]. The three point
bending flexural test is the most commonly implemented test to obtain the modulus of
elasticity in bending or flexural stress because of its simplification. Flexural strength
is found to be greater than tensile strength for both tensile and compression is being
subjected at the time. In accordance to ASTM standard D790, a specimen of 127mm
in length, 12.7mm in width and 3.2mm in depth should be produced for the flexure
test [12].

PLA, Polylactic acid is a type of bioplastic which can be obtained through maize.
PLA is dimensionally stable, cheap and easy to obtain in a filament form. PLA has a
lower melting temperature and its products are of higher strength and hard wearing
compared to ABS [6]. PLA is the second highest consumption volume of any
bioplastic in the world in the year of 2010 [7].
 Universiti Malaysia Perlis
School of Mechatronic Engineering

ACETAL, also known as Polyoxymethylene (POM) is a type of thermoplastic which

is used in producing precision parts, requiring high stiffness and it is dimensionally
stable. Acetal is used often when it comes to low friction requirement or for sliding
mechanisms such as gears and so [8].

ABS, is the abbreviation for acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. It is a very common type
of thermoplastic with its mechanical properties varying with temperature [9]. ABS got
its toughness from the polybutadiene, this high toughness then reflect to superb
strength and impact resistance [6].

Fused filament fabrication or abbreviation, FFF is one of the 3D printing process.

One can think of FFF working process as a hot glue gun, for the polymer will be the
glue stick, the gun is the extruder and the hot end is the same with one in a hot glue
gun that melts the glue [10]. Before the printing process can be proceed, a design
process should first carried out. A design of the part needed is design through CAD
software then the drawing will then be sliced using a slicing software. Slicing is a
process where the CAD drawing get translated into a 3D printer language or
technically, into G-code. This will create the paths for the printer to follow when
printing [11]. It is during this process where the printer parameter is determined and
the mechanical properties of the finished part is affected by the preset parameter.

4. Methodology:
Test specimen in accordance to
ASTM D790 will be printed using a
Rep Rap 3D printer and materials as
mentioned above. The parameters
for printing the specimen so for
comparison are as below:
START
Taguchi and ANOVA analysis to determine the
optimum number of specimen to be printed.
Print test specimen according to ASTM D790 with
the variable parameter established.

(a) Layer Height: NO

Part obey to the
 0.2mm requirements?
 0.4mm YES
(b) Printing Orientation (shown in
SEM Analysis on structure
fig below)
 0°/90° (flat)
Flexural testing on specimen
 +45°/ -45° (flat)
(c) In-fill Density YES

 100% (solid) NO
 60% (porous) Test result conform to
hypothesis?

END
 Universiti Malaysia Perlis
School of Mechatronic Engineering

[13]

5. Gantt chart

6. References:
[1] B. Caulfield, P. E. McHugh, and S. Lohfeld, “Dependence of mechanical
properties of polyamide components on build parameters in the SLS process,” J.
Mater. Process. Technol., vol. 182, no. 1–3, pp. 477–488, 2007.
[2] A. Lanzotti, M. Grasso, G. Staiano, and M. Martorelli, “The impact of process
parameters on mechanical properties of parts fabricated in PLA with an open-
source 3-D printer,” Rapid Prototyp. J., vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 604–617, 2015.
[3] I. Gajdoš and J. Slota, “influence of printing conditions on structure in FDM
prototypes,” Tech. Gaz., vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 231–236, 2013.
[4] B. H. Lee, J. Abdullah, and Z. A. Khan, “Optimization of rapid prototyping
parameters for production of flexible ABS object,” J. Mater. Process. Technol.,
vol. 169, no. 1, pp. 54–61, 2005.
 Universiti Malaysia Perlis
School of Mechatronic Engineering

[5] M. F. Ashby, Michael F. Ashby, and M. F. Ashby, “Materials Selection in

Mechanical Design,” Elsevier, vol. 3, p. 665, 2011.
[6] PLA vs ABS: Filaments for 3D Printing Explained & Compared |
All3DP", All3DP, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://all3dp.com/pla-abs-3d-printer-
filaments-compared/. [Accessed: 01- Oct- 2017].
[7] M. Studies and A. Us, “Market Study: Bioplastics (4th edition),” pp. 1–4, 2017.

[8] T. Rogers, "All About Acetal: Prototypes, 3D Printing, CNC and Injection
Molding", Creativemechanisms.com, 2017. [Online]. Available:
https://www.creativemechanisms.com/blog/all-about-polyoxymethylene-acetal-
prototypes-3d-printing-cnc-and-injection-molding. [Accessed: 26- Sep- 2017].
[9] Plastic Properties of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) ArchivedMay 15,
2010, at the Wayback Machine. Small table of ABS properties towards the bottom.
Retrieved 7 May 2010
[10] "What is Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) and How does it Work?", Type A
Machines Knowledge Base, 2017. [Online]. Available:
https://typeamachines.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200041189-What-is-Fused-
Filament-Fabrication-FFF-and-How-does-it-Work-. [Accessed: 03- Oct- 2017].
[11] What is Slicing Software, and what does it do?", GoPrint3D Blog, 2017. [Online].
Available: https://www.goprint3d.co.uk/blog/what-is-slicing-software-and-what-
does-it-do/. [Accessed: 01- Oct- 2017].
[12] R. Hernandez, D. Slaughter, D. Whaley, J. Tate, and B. Asiabanpour, “Analyzing
the Tensile, Compressive, and Flexural Properties of 3D Printed ABS P430 Plastic
Based on Printing Orientation Using Fused Deposition Modeling,” Solid Free.
Fabr. Symp., pp. 939–950, 2016.

[13] J. Cantrell et al., “Experimental Characterization of the Mechanical Properties of

3D-Printed ABS and Polycarbonate Parts.”

…………………………….
Student: CECELIA CHEE HOOI ERN
Date: 7 OCTOBER 2017