An investigation of surface quality characteristics of 3D printed PLA plates cut by CO2 laser using experimental design

Abstract

In this work, two typical surface characteristics, i.e., mean surface roughness and angle of the kerf during laser processing of 3D-printed Polylactic Acid (PLA) plates with 4.00 mm in thickness, are investigated. A carbon dioxide laser was utilized to separate 27 work pieces of rectangular shape. The governing laser parameters, speed of cutting and laser power, were varied according to full factorial experimental methodology. An orthogonal array (OA) having nine combinations was implemented, and nine specimens were cut with the same set-up and the same parameters three times (27 replicates in total). The experimental results were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis, i.e., histograms, box plots, interaction charts and optimized using analysis of means (ANOM) plots as well as ANOVA analysis. The data analysis indicated that laser speed is the dominant parameter for the kerf angle, whilst both the laser velocity and power are important for mean surface roughness of the cut surface for PLA 3D-printed parts. The spread of the data is smaller in Y direction, which indicates that the weaving phenomenon affects the laser cut performance. © 2021 Taylor & Francis.