Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is one of the most common 3D printing techniques having considerable potential in various fields such as pharmaceutical, medical, aerospace, and automotive. One of the impediments of FFF components is their lower mechanical performance compared with those from conventional fabrication methods. This work aims to investigate the effect of adding nanoclay due to being nontoxic to the biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) polymer matrix for medical applications. PLA granules were melt-compounded by a twin-screw extruder with nanoclay at 2 and 4 wt.%, and then, PLA and PLA/nanoclay filaments were produced using a single-screw extruder. An L9 orthogonal array of the Taguchi approach was utilized as the design of the experiment tool to study the process in detail considering nanoclay content, nozzle temperature and raster angle as material and processing parameters. The dispersion of nanoclay in the PLA matrix was assessed by X-ray diffraction test. The results indicated that the tensile strength was enhanced by 4.6% and 15.3% using the addition of 2 and 4 wt.% of nanoclay, respectively. The microscopic observations showed that the bonding between the rasters and between the contours and rasters was improved by increasing the temperature, and consequently, led to higher tensile strength values. The results revealed that the tensile strength of 38.9 MPa was obtained at the optimum condition.

熔丝制造 (FFF) 是最常见的 3D 打印技术之一，在制药、医疗、航空航天和汽车等各个领域具有巨大潜力。与传统制造方法相比，FFF 组件的障碍之一是它们的机械性能较低。这项工作旨在研究添加纳米粘土对医疗应用的可生物降解聚乳酸 (PLA) 聚合物基质无毒的影响。PLA 颗粒通过双螺杆挤出机与 2 和 4 重量％的纳米粘土熔融复合，然后使用单螺杆挤出机生产 PLA 和 PLA/纳米粘土长丝。田口方法的 L9 正交阵列被用作实验工具的设计，以详细研究考虑纳米粘土含量的过程，喷嘴温度和光栅角作为材料和加工参数。通过 X 射线衍射测试评估纳米粘土在 PLA 基体中的分散。结果表明，加入2wt.%和4wt.%的纳米粘土，拉伸强度分别提高了4.6%和15.3%。显微观察表明，光栅之间以及轮廓和光栅之间的粘合通过提高温度而得到改善，从而导致更高的拉伸强度值。结果表明，在最佳条件下获得了38.9 MPa的拉伸强度。％的纳米粘土，分别。显微观察表明，光栅之间以及轮廓和光栅之间的粘合通过提高温度而得到改善，从而导致更高的拉伸强度值。结果表明，在最佳条件下获得了38.9 MPa的拉伸强度。％的纳米粘土，分别。显微观察表明，光栅之间以及轮廓和光栅之间的粘合通过提高温度而得到改善，从而导致更高的拉伸强度值。结果表明，在最佳条件下获得了38.9 MPa的拉伸强度。