Abstract:
Light weight components having greater strength and lower manufacturing cost are the need
of the hour especially for aerospace industries. For this, honeycomb sandwich structures of
various materials and parameters are developed by Additive Manufacturing (AM) to meet the
desired output of sufficient strength to withstand compression and flexural loading. In this
paper, the honeycomb structures are fabricated using a fused filament fabrication (FDM)
technique. The effect of different printing conditions on the compressive and flexural properties
of the 3D-printed honeycomb structures made of PLA, ABS and PLA+ polymeric laminates
are investigated experimentally and analyzed by Taguchi and ANOVA (Analysis of Variance).
Three build orientations, i.e., 0, 45 and 90 degrees, with layer heights of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mm
are considered for the 3D printing. Moreover, Multi-objective optimization is performed to
optimize the strength and printing time (cost) of L27 array samples. Results show that 90ᵒ and
0ᵒ build orientations with 0.3 mm layer height being PLA and PLA+ the best materials are the
optimum conditions for compressive and flexural mode of testing, respectively. The results
deduced that compressive and flexural samples could withstand maximum load of 69,000N
and 120 N with minimum printing time. Thus. it would be fruitful in harnessing energy for the
development of sustainable printing of durable components.
