Predicting Mechanical Properties of Polymers in Additive Manufacturing: A Machine Learning Multioutput Regression Approach
摘要
Material extrusion additive manufacturing presents a promising method for fabricating polymer components, with the optimization of tensile strength and elongation as key objectives. This study applies machine learning techniques to predict these properties using a dataset comprising 171 samples and six input variables: layer thickness, infill pattern, infill density, print speed, and nozzle and bed temperatures. Three models are compared: Linear Regressor, Decision Tree Regressor, and Support Vector Regressor. Among these, the Decision Tree Regressor demonstrates superior performance, achieving R2 values of 0.9955 (training), 0.8866 (testing), and 0.9751 (validation) for tensile strength, with corresponding MAE values of 0.4747, 2.9259, and 1.2769. For elongation, the R2 values reach 0.9627 (training), 0.8534 (testing), and 0.9990 (validation), alongside MAE values of 0.2273, 0.6170, and 0.0741. Feature importance analysis identifies bed temperature and layer thickness as the primary influencers. These findings underscore the effectiveness of decision tree regression for property prediction, thereby supporting data-driven optimization in additive manufacturing.
Graphical Abstract