Rapid prototyping (RP) have been attracting attention in the manufacturing community because of their capability to reduce the lead time of product development. Present work is an effort to understand the influence of process variables like infill pattern, layer thickness, build orientation and infill density on dimensional accuracy (DA), flatness and cylindricity. Taguchi method orthogonal array L9 was used for the conduction of experiments. MakerBot Replicator-2 was used for the fabrication of scaled prototype connecting rod of polylactic acid (PLA) material. DA, flatness and cylindricity of the component were measured by using coordinate measuring machine (CMM). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to find out the significance of process parameters. A regression model was developed to predict the DA, flatness and cylindricity. The results reveal that the optimum process parameters for the DA, flatness and cylindricity were different. Utility Theory was used to find out the best process parameter condition. The best process parameters for the DA, flatness and cylindricity was found to be layer thickness 100 µm, linear infill pattern, inclined at 45º orientation and 20% infill density. A confirmation test was conducted for checking the goodness of the model, which reveals that results were within the confidence limit.

中文翻译：

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利用FDM原型技术制造PLA塑料材料原型连杆。

快速原型制作（RP）可以减少产品开发的交货时间，因此备受制造业关注。当前的工作是努力了解工艺变量（例如填充图案，层厚，构建方向和填充密度）对尺寸精度（DA），平面度和圆柱度的影响。使用田口法正交阵列L9进行实验。MakerBot Replicator-2用于制造比例缩放的聚乳酸（PLA）材料原型连杆。通过使用坐标测量机（CMM）测量组件的DA，平面度和圆柱度。采用方差分析（ANOVA）找出过程参数的重要性。开发了回归模型来预测DA，平面度和圆柱度。结果表明，DA，平面度和圆柱度的最佳工艺参数不同。效用理论被用来找出最佳的工艺参数条件。对于DA，平整度和圆柱度的最佳工艺参数是：层厚度100 µm，线性填充图案，以45º方向倾斜，填充密度为20％。进行了确认测试以检查模型的优劣，这表明结果在置信度内。