The effect of build direction on component strength in SLA-based additive manufacturing

Nowadays additive manufacturing is frequently used, especially in industrial applications such as aerospace and biomedical. In the additive manufacturing method, thanks to the layered manufacturing technique, it enables the production of components with all kinds of complex geometries and accelerates the production process. As it is known, the orientation of the layers in the additive manufacturing technique affects the mechanical properties of the components. Among the parameters affecting strength, layer thickness, production direction and layer geometry are of great importance. In this study, the effect of layer orientation on component strength in SLA-based additive manufacturing was experimentally investigated. Consequently, standard tensile samples were produced at four different production orientation using the UV Stereolithography method. Tests of the tensile samples were carried out at constant tensile speed and tensile curves were obtained. According to the results, it was determined that the layer joints parallel to the shear plane exhibited the lowest strength. Therefore, samples produced at the parallel to the shear plane fractures at lower loads and showed low strength. Considering the experimental results obtained, it has been determined that the structure orientation affects the mechanical properties of the component by ~20%.