An Investigation on the Hardness of Polylactic Acid Parts Fabricated via Fused Deposition Modeling

This paper investigated the hardness property of the fused deposition modeling (FDM)-printed PLA samples via different process parameters of printing and raster angles. The hardness data were sampled from the flat and edge surfaces of the samples. In addition, the effect of hardness characters after the ultraviolet (UV) curing process was analyzed. Furthermore, this research found that the printing and raster angles significantly affected the hardness value of the PLA part, which slightly increased after the UV irradiation. Moreover, the results of this study will provide a reference for the field of FDM application.