Manufacturing parameter influence on FDM polypropylene tensile properties

Abstract

Polypropylene (PP) is a relatively new material in fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology. The main feature of this material is its ability to significantly elongate under applied load, unlike any other thermoplastic material used in FDM technology. Not much research has been conducted on this FDM material so far, hence, the subject of this paper is the investigation of printing parameters’ influence on PP tensile properties. Targeted parameters are layer height, infill density, and the orientation of raster lines, resulting in four different manufacturing regimes. To have a better insight into the experimental results, the data are analysed using ANOVA statistical method with Tukey HSD post hoc test. Obtained statistical results have proven the printing parameter’s influence on tensile results, emphasizing the influence on elastic modulus. Here, Tukey test results show the maximal number of homogeneous subsets evidencing that all printing parameters have an influence on elastic modulus values.