Surface roughness assessment of ABS and PLA filament 3D printing parts: structural parameters experimentation and semi-empirical modelling

As a typical 3D printing process, fused filament fabrication still has disadvantages when operating on manufacturing lines due to the non-uniform textures of the oriented surfaces of the 3D-printed components. This work investigates the effects of structural parameters, i.e., orientations angle, ABS and PLA materials, three different layer thicknesses, three different perimeters, and three different infill rates utilizing a balanced modified Taguchi experimental design and 63 different parametric combinations to characterize the surface roughness parameters: average Ra, mean roughness depth Rz, root mean square Rq, skewness Rsk, and kurtosis Rku. The analysis of the experimental results, i.e., the levels mean values analysis plots and linear residual analysis of variances, showed that the layer thickness strongly influences all surface parameters and interacts considerably with all orientations. In contrast, material type, number of perimeters, and infill rate had insignificant impacts on surface roughness parameters. Finally, the additive linear modelling approach was utilized and validated for proper predictions, making it helpful for surface engineering applications.