Mechanical and microstructural behavior of FDM-Printed Hyper-PLA by optimizing process parameters

3D printing is the rapidly developing manufacturing technology in many industrial sectors such automobile, aerospace, art, education, electronics, engineering and medicine. One of the widely available, simple, inexpensive and efficient technique is Fused Deposition Modeling. This technology can process several biodegradable thermoplastic polymers, including PLA, PETG, PEEK for fabricating prototypes, visualization and fast product development. But still the mechanical properties of these materials were limited. The novel Hyper-PLA is an advanced designed materials of PLA mainly for high-speed printing and enhanced mechanical properties. In this research the mechanical characteristics (tensile, compression, flexural and impact) by using the ASTM standards and challenges of the Hyper-PLA materials with various process parameters (infill pattern and infill density) were analyzed and also the structural characteristics of the materials were analyzed after the load condition. The results indicated that, in addition to infill density, the infill pattern significantly influenced the durability of the product. The rectilinear infill pattern significantly influence on most of the mechanical properties. This study also shows the different infill pattern’s load carrying capability and how it reacts using the SEM analysis. The mechanical properties of Hyper-PLA is significantly improved 10–20% compared with the PLA. Also, the opportunities for the future development are also discussed to enhance the mechanical characteristics. Hyper-PLA exhibits superior mechanical properties 10–20% over the PLA. The rectilinear infill pattern with 100% infill density perform well. Honeycomb patterns absorbs more load in the Impact due to interconnected hexagonal structures. Gyroid infill pattern is not absorbing more strength due to its structural geometry. The Microstructural analysis shows the interlayer adhesion for enhancing the mechanical characteristics.