PCL/PLA Polymer Composite Filament Fabrication using Full Factorial Design (DOE) for Fused Deposition Modelling

Abstract

In this study, Polycaprolactone / Polylactice Acid (PCL/PLA) composite are used to fabricate filament wire with the specific diameter, which is in the range of 1.75 to 1.80 mm. Full factorial experimental design technique was used to study the main effects and the interaction effects between operational parameter which is (A) die temperature, (B) roller puller speed, (C) spindle speed and (D) inlet temperature. Besides that, there are two levels (-1 and +1) and the response are filament wire diameter. There are 16 numbers of runs and plus 8 centre points per blocks which makes the runs into 24 runs. From the experiment it shows that there are four factor that are significant effects on the filament wire diameter which is A, B, C and BC. The optimum parameter setting are also determined and there are 10 suggestions to achieve the target with different setting of parameter. The margin error for confirmation run is below than 15% when the parameter set at 6 Hz spindle speed, 4.99 rpm roller puller, 100.31 °C die temperature and 79.65 °C inlet temperature which can be noted that the confirmation run result is acceptable. The optimization parameter setting can use to continue in Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM). Filament wire from PCL/PLA are succesfully fabricated with acceptable diameter size and ready to be used for Fused Depotion Modelling process (FDM).