Prediction of tensile strength of 3D printed part using response surface methodology

In the recent past, rapid prototyping, especially powder-based inkjet 3D printing technology, has been most popular for complex and customised production. 3D printing also referred to as additive manufacturing involves a successive layering process through part fabrication. In this study, the effects of 3D printing parameters such as part orientation and layer thickness on tensile strength of fabricated part have been ascertained experimentally. Part orientation in XY, XZ and YZ planes has been considered for experimentation. Moreover, computer-aided design model has been used to fabricate a 3D prototype. Furthermore, a set of 27 experimental runs have been performed using Box–Behnken design of experiment. These experimental observations have been used to develop mathematical models for the tensile strength of fabricated part considering response surface methodology. Analysis of variance has been performed in order to check the statistical significance of control parameters. It has been deduced that on increasing the layer thickness, tensile strength of the fabricated part reduces.