Strength of 3D printed scaffold structures - a parametric study

Abstract

Three dimensional printing (3DP) facilitates most innovative techniques to manufacture the complex geometry components. The parametric significance for mechanical strength of three dimensional printed polymers, such as polylactic acid (PLA), is of great concern since fused deposition modelling (FDM) being a layered manufacturing process. In this study, the simultaneous impact of process parameters, e.g. raster angle, unit cell size and extrusion width on compressive behavior of rapid prototyped PLA samples was investigated. In biomedical engineering field, 3D printed scaffolds are vastly used as supporting structures for cellular interactions which help in the development and growth of new tissues replacing the damaged tissues in the body. Gyroid structures are most widely used for bone tissue implants for their resemblance to the extracellular matrix (ECM) structures of the bone tissues. The compressive strength and Young’s modulus increased as the level of input values for raster angle and extrusion width increased. Taguchi design of experiment (DOE) L9 array is used for performing the experiments with three different process parameters having three level of input values. To determine the significance of different process parameters, linear regression analysis is carried out and the results are presented using the S/N ratio "Larger is Better" approach.