Effect of the Printing Scenario on the Dimensional Accuracy and the Tensile Strength of Different Colored PLA Specimens Produced by Fused Deposition Modeling

Dimensional accuracy and mechanical properties of components printed by fused deposition modeling (FDM) are influenced by several process parameters. In this paper, the authors targeted the effect of the printing scenario and the PLA (polylactic acid) color on parts’ quality. Three scenarios were analyzed: individually printing, simultaneously printing of three, respective five specimens of natural (transparent), red, grey, and black PLA. The temperature variations of successive deposited layers were recorded for the black PLA. The dimensional accuracy of tensile specimens was evaluated, tensile tests were performed, and the results were correlated with the mesostructure of the prints. The effect of the independent variables on the measured parameters was analyzed by ANOVA. The experiments revealed differences for the same printing scenario regarding cross-section area (up to 5.71%) and tensile strength (up to 10.45%) determined by the material color. The number of specimens printed simultaneously and the position of the specimens on the build plate were found to influence too, but less than the color. Thus, increasing from one to five the number of specimens printed at a time altered both the dimensional accuracy (up to 3.93% increase of the cross-section area) and the tensile strength (up to 3.63% reduction).