Product Code: ICAL05_P549

Mechanical Properties Optimization of Stereolithographic Process
Authors:
Sabina Luisa Campanelli, Politecnico di Bari; Bari Italy
Antonio Domenico Ludovico, Politecnico di Bari; Bari Italy
Caterina Casavola, Politecnico di Bari; Bari Italy
Presented at ICALEO 2005

Stereolithography (SL) has been the first available system of rapid prototyping processes and it?s actually the most widespread one in the world market.
The aim of the paper is to propose a statistical analysis to quantitatively evaluate how largely each SL process parameter contributes to the mechanical properties of built parts.
A specific specimen was designed and built according to ASTM D 638 ? 99. A Viper Si2 Machine by 3D Systems was used for this purpose in both the modalities allowed from this machine: Normal Resolution and High Resolution. Tensile tests were conducted under specimens generated under different process parameters. Mechanical properties were evaluated in terms of tensile modulus, tensile strength and elongation at break.
The process parameters considered in this work were: Layer Thickness (LT), Hatch Overcure (HO), Border Overcure (BO) and Hatch Spacing (HS).
An L9 orthogonal array was planned for the experiments setup and a Taguchi optimal design was used in order to find out the parameters combination leading to the best mechanical properties.
A detailed analysis of the laser ? resin interaction was performed to explain results.