Experimental characterization of 3D printed thermoplastic plates subjected to low velocity impact

3D printed parts made from Polylactic acid (PLA) have a brittle nature when subjected to out-of-plane loading, e.g., impact. In this paper, we report the use of a pendulum impact test apparatus along with a high-speed camera and an Infrared (IR) thermography system to investigate impact damage characteristics of PLA 3D printed plates. The effects of impact energy levels, impact locations, and changes in layer thickness were examined for a clamped plate with a raster angle of 0° and a nominal thickness of 2.52 mm. The upper impact energy level (3 J) showed higher absorbed energy percentage than the lower impact energy level (1 J) for two impact locations, namely, central and off-center. For the 3 J impact energy, the maximum absorbed energy percentage for central loading was observed for specimens with 0.16 mm in layer thickness, while this occurred at 0.14 mm layer thickness for the off-center impact. For almost all layer thicknesses, the off-center loading resulted in a higher absorbed energy percentage compared with the central impact.