Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Mechanical Properties of Hyper Polylactic Acid (HPLA)

Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most widely used materials for fused filament fabrication (FFF) or fused deposition modeling (FDM), being recognized for its low carbon footprint, relatively low costs and good mechanical properties. Improving the mechanical and technological properties of PLA with various additives has led to the production of different types of PLA-based filaments, such as hyper PLA (HPLA), PLA, PLA+ and PLA Lite. Studies on the mechanical properties of HPLA are scarce; therefore, the objective of this paper was to determine the mechanical properties of 3D-printed HPLA under tensile and bending stress conditions and to obtain numerical models that depend on the raster pattern orientation. The principal component analysis (PCA) reveals very different results for bending compared with tension, with outcomes varying significantly depending on the orientation of the raster angle.