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The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of five key build parameters – layer thickness, deposition angle, infill, extrusion speed and extrusion temperature, and their interactions – on the maximum flexural force in specimens which are made of polylactic acid (PLA).

Through a previous study on the flexural properties of PLA specimens, a statistically significant effect of layer thickness was indicated, requiring further experimentation to establish the values of quadratic term in the model, as well as to perform optimization. Instead of performing a conventional Central Composite Design, a novel, definitive screening design (DSD) was used as statistical method. DSD allowed the reduction of the number of runs required for optimization while minimizing aliasing.

Significance of deposition angle and infill as main effects was established. Moreover, significant two-way interactions between infill/layer thickness and infill/extrusion speed were detected and discussed. The optimization procedure showed that minimum level of deposition angle, maximum levels of extrusion speed and infill and near mid-level of layer thickness yield maximum flexural force.

In this study, the three levels of infill were 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3, which corresponds to 10, 20 and 30 per cent of infill, respectively. In everyday practice, infill is usually kept within this range since it allows time-efficiency, i.e. significant reduction of build time. Though, unsurprisingly, higher infill is positively correlated with flexural strength, this study provides practical directions for optimal selection of other key parameters when working with low infill values.

Optimal 3D printing with low infill can contribute to lower material waste and pollution, while PLA plastic’s biodegradability remains high on the environment protection agenda.

According to available literature, no previous studies have investigated the FDM extrusion of PLA material using a combination of low infill, deposition angle, layer thickness, extrusion speed and extrusion temperature.

There are many investigations in design methodologies, but there are also divergences and convergences as there are so many points of view. This study aims to evaluate to corroborate and deepen other researchers’ findings, dissipate divergences and provide directing to future work on the subject from a methodological and convergent perspective.

This study analyzes the previous reviews (about 15 reviews) and based on the consensus and the classifications provided by these authors, a significant sample of research is analyzed in the design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) theme (approximately 80 articles until June of 2017 and approximately 280–300 articles until February of 2019) through descriptive statistics, to corroborate and deepen the findings of other researchers.

Throughout this work, this paper found statistics indicating that the main areas studied are: multiple objective optimizations, execution of the design, general DFAM and DFAM for functional performance. Among the main conclusions: there is a lack of innovation in the products developed with the methodologies, there is a lack of exhaustivity in the methodologies, there are few efforts to include environmental aspects in the methodologies, many of the methods include economic and cost evaluation, but are not very explicit and broad (sustainability evaluation), it is necessary to consider a greater variety of functions, among other conclusions

The novelty in this study is the methodology. It is very objective, comprehensive and quantitative. The starting point is not the case studies nor the qualitative criteria, but the figures and quantities of methodologies. The main contribution of this review article is to guide future work on the subject from a methodological and convergent perspective and this article provides a broad database with articles containing information on many issues to make decisions: design methodology; optimization; processes, selection of parts and materials; cost and product management; mechanical, electrical and thermal properties; health and environmental impact, etc.