3D Printing Parameters Optimization of ABS Probe Holder for Ultrasonic Scanner

Abstract

In recent years, 3D printing technology has received a lot of attention. The use of 3D printing technology in many industries is widely accepted due to its low cost of production and capacity to manufacture complex and geometrical shapes. This paper presents the fabrication of probe holder by using 3D printing technology for ultrasonic scanner application. The fabrication of 3D printed probe holder began with the Taguchi technique design of experiment (DOE). Three major effects were identified: printing temperature, layer thickness and infill density. Solidworks software was employed to build the computer-aided design (CAD) model of the probe holder. Subsequently, the CAD model file is converted to Standard Tessellation Language (STL) file for 3D printing process. The probe holder was successfully fabricated using 3D printer without any defects visible on the outside surface of the 3D printed products. Based on bending test results, it can be concluded that the strength of probe holder was attributed by the layer thickness.