Experimental Investigation on Mechanical Behaviour of 3D-Printed Part for Brake Pedal Applications

Industry 4.0, also known as digital manufacturing, is a new revolution in the manufacturing industry that employs tools such as reverse engineering, additive manufacturing, and design optimization techniques such as generative design. This most recent technological advancement can be used to enhance existing designs and products for performance and efficiency with the power of computation. Reverse engineering is a technique or approach in which one tries to understand, using deductive reasoning and little to no understanding of how something works, such as how a previously created device, process, system, or piece of software performs a function. It can be used to collect visual data to recreate models of desired objects using 3D scanning methods. This study used these various advances to optimise a 3D-printed brake pedal. It entailed reverse engineering the brake pedal using 3D scanning, followed by optimising the brake pedal design for mass and shape using generative design. The 3D printing process was optimised through a parametric study of the process parameters which include Type of Material, Layer Thickness, Infill Density, Infill Pattern, and Raster Angle. The result of experiment is revealed that material type (33.63%), Infill density (20.48%) and Layer Thickness (20.41%) significantly influencing the tensile strength of the 3D printed specimen. It also showed that Infill density (31.06%), material type (21.54%) and Layer Thickness (20.41%) are the most influencing process parameters of Impact strength. The findings were unified and used to create a Lightweight Polymer Brake Pedal optimised for High-Performance Applications in Electric Vehicles.