Review of data gathering method for

mechanical properties of component

fabricate with open source 3D printer
Nor Ana binti Rosli

Siti Najatul Aishah binti Majid

Faculty of mechanical engineering

Malacca, Malaysia
noranarosli@yahoo.com

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Malacca, Malaysia
najatul_aishah@yahoo.com

Abstract - Data gathering is important aspect of any

type of research study. Inaccurate data will impact the

There six rapid prototyping technique that available as

follows:

result research and lead to invalid result. The purpose of

this paper is to investigate the data gathering method for

Stereo Lithography (SLA)

mechanical properties of component fabricate with open

Laminated Object Manufacture (LOM)

source 3D printer. Open source 3D printer is self-

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

replicating rapid prototype that made based on printer

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM)

that readily available in the market. Currently, object

Solid Ground Curing (SGC)

3D Ink Jet Printing

are fabricate from material acrylonitrile butadiene

system (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA) have low
temperature to melting and use in melt extrusion. Thus,
in order to make RepRap printed are useful for

All the Rapid prototyping technique through the same

basic five step process. The steps are as follows:

engineering application the mechanical properties of

printed part must be know. Experiment was conducted

1.

Create CAD model of the design

to study the basic tensile strength and elastic modulus of

2.

Convert CAD file into STL format

printed component.

3.

Slice the STL model into thin cross

sectional layers

Keyword data gathering; 3D printer; rapid

4.

prototyping

I.

INTRODUCTION

3D printer or rapid prototyping refers to a group

of technique used to quickly fabricate a scale model of
a physical part or assembly using 3D CAD data.
Recently, open source 3D printer model has been
developed and can be built with reasonable price.
Between 2008 and 2011, it is estimated that number of
RepRap use had increase from 4 to 4500 [1].

Construct the model one layer atop

another

5.

Clean and finish the modulation

The RepRap was created by Adrian Bowyers and is

supported by many contributor through online wiki
which provide detailed in assembly instruction for
several variant of 3D printer [1, 2].Thus, nowadays

the open source model have a lot of improvement

rapidly with time. Currently, RepRap fabricate
objects from acrylonitrile butadiene system
(ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA) material which

have melting temperature low enough to use in melt

In this research, data gathering method use to

extrusion. In other hand, to make RepRap more useful

collect

tools

basic

Experimentation is the main method by natural

mechanical properties are necessary. The basic tensile

scientist. The testing of hypothesis about relationship

strength and elastic modulus on printed need to be

between independent and dependent normally involve

studied for standard users of selective low cost open

in experimentation. Experimental method is the

source 3D printers.

premier method which is preliminary data collection is

for

standard

II.

engineering

practice

METHOD

all

the

data

related

is

experiment.

needed and interpretation exercise to prepare for a

format experiment.

Data gathering usually collect through qualitative

III.

and quantitative method. The quantitative data

DATA GATHERING

collection method rely on random sampling and

structure data collection .Quantitative research
approach on testing hypothesis derived from theory or
being able to estimate the size of phenomenon of
interest. The advantage of this method is cheaper to
implement, easy to make a comparisons, and usually it

Table 1: RepRap 3D printer slicing variable

Pattern orientation ()

0/90, +45/-45

Layer Height (mm)

0.4, 0.3,

0.2
Infill (%)

100

can be measured. However, this method is limit their

capacity for

investigation and explanation of

similarities and differences.

Qualitative data cannot be measured by number.

Table 2: Printers used for specimen printing

Number

Type

Filament

Printer 1

MOST

Natural ABS, Clear PLA

Printer 2

Luzlbo

The qualitative data always tend to answering how

and why of a program and use unstructured method
of data collection. Qualitative question are open ended
and the method include focus group, group discussion

tPrusa

Mendel
Printer 3
Printer 4

Natural ABS, Purple PLA,

White PLA
Black PLA

Prusa Mendel

Natural PLA

Original Mendel

and interview. The advantage of this method is good

for further explore the effect and unintended
consequences of a program.

Slicing parameter are used to determine the

mechanical properties of 3D printed parts and the

The sources of information for data collection is

divided into two. Firstly, is primary sources which is
data is collect by researcher himself and is gather
through interview, question and observation. Secondly
is secondary sources data is collect and written by

variability in these properties when different used

controlled printing. The investigation will looked
at the relationship between deposition pattern
orientation and layer height to tensile strength,

other researcher and need to be acknowledge by other.

strain at tensile strength, and modulus. As shown

There are four main method used to collect data which

in Table 1 is the printing parameters used. STL

is interview, survey and questionnaire, observation

file as shown in Figure 1 of a tensile test specimen

and experimentation.

was created and distribute online for anyone to print

[3]. 10 specimens for complete set of each of the

By using Instron machine 4468 the testing was

combination was printed on different of open source

performed. The load are controlled using Bluehill

3D printer including Mendel RepRap, Prusa Mendel

Software on a windows PC. Load applied is 50kN and

RepRap, Lulzbot Prusa RepRap and custom MOST

2inch strain measure using gage length extensometer.

RepRap. The printer listed as shown in Table 2. Since

Each test was conduct with cross head rate 5 mm/min.

all the specimen created from same STL file, thus the

Stress, strain and modulus calculations was performed

setting for each in different such as extruder,

within the Bluehill Software. Each sample consist of

temperature, based on which setting result in the best

ten specimen for a given group of printer setting. All

print on each printer.

specimen were printed in x-y plane, which aligned the

extruder filament and the direction of the loading with
the least number of layer.
IV.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The result as shown in Table 3 which is the

average property values for both PLA and ABS
categorized by layer height and orientation. ABS
filament show no large discrepancies for both layer
height and orientation and all average stayed with a
reasonable range of the overall average. Specimen
with 0.2 mm layer height had greatest tensile strength,
while specimen with 0.4mm layer height had greatest
elastic modulus. The strongest elastic modulus is
+45/-45 while 0/90 had the greater elastic
modulus.
The PLA specimens shows greater variability
between parameter. Tensile strength average varied by
11.9MPa, or 22%, between 0.3mm and 0.2mm layer
Figure 1: (a) Rendering of the shared. STL file of the

height. Elastic modulus varied by 194MPa, or 6%,

ASTM: D638 tensile standard [3] and (b) digital

between 0.4mm and 0.2mm layer height.

photograph of a specimen in a load frame.

Table 3: Average tensile strength and elastic modulus for RepRap printed component
Specimen

Specimen considered

tested
ABS
0.4 mm Layer height
0.3 mm Layer height
0.2 mm Layer height
0/90 orientation
+45/-45 orientation
Total
PLA
0.4 mm Layer height
0.3 mm Layer height
0.2 mm Layer height
0/90 orientation
+45/-45 orientation
Total

V.

Average tensile

Average strain at tensile

Average elastic

strength (MPa)

strength (mm/mm)

modulus (MPa)

30
40
40
60
50
110

24
39
35
52
46
98

28.2
27.6
29.7
27.7
29.5
28.5

0.0197
0.0231
0.0201
0.0192
0.0233
0.0212

1875
1736
1839
1867
1739
1807

30
40
20
50
40
90

17
31
18
27
39
66

54.9
48.5
60.4
54.9
52.3
56.6

0.0194
0.0171
0.0196
0.0188
0.0181
0.0193

3286
3340
3480
3336
3384
3368

CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

As a conclusion the mechanical properties of ABS and

PLA components made using open source RepRap
3Dprinter were characterized through standard tensile,

[1]

Jones R, Haufe P, Sells E, Iravani P, Olliver

V, Palmer C, et al. RepRap the replicating
rapid prototyper. Robotica 2011; 29(1):177
91.

[2]

Build
a
RepRap.
RepRapWiki.
http://reprap.org/wiki/Build_A_RepRap.

[3]

Revised ASTM Tensile Test Specimen.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:28987.

strain and elastic modulus. Based on the result it shows

that the average tensile strength of RepRap printed
part is 28.5MPa for ABS and 56.6MPa for PLA with
average elastic modulus of 1807 MPa for ABS and
3368MPa for PLA. Lastly, data gathering can be
collect by using experiment method. To make sure the
experiment is valid trying to make it several trial until
get the best result.