The American Society of Materials Los Angeles Chapter awarded a team of mechanical engineering students first place for their research presentation titled “Optimal Parameters of 3D Printed PLA Parts regarding Isotropy and Material Efficiency” at their student night in April. Tristan Minter ’25, Jacob Parker ’26, Lukas Foassis ’26, Spencer Kraber ’26, and Kenneth Louie ’25 were on the team mentored by Omar Es-Said, professor of mechanical engineering.
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, has transformed the production landscape by enabling complex design possibilities and cost-effective production. This, in turn, has allowed for more innovation across industries, including aerospace, automotive, health care, and more.
“We see many different people use 3D printing in their work. Entrepreneurship students are printing out their minimum viable products. Theatre students are printing out their props. Just the other day, I was asked to print a replacement valve for my friend’s fish tank,” said Parker. “Our work helps people print faster, cheaper, and stronger parts.”
In 3D polymer printing, there is much freedom in how a part is filled. “The infill percent and infill pattern – how much material is used and how the inside is structured – are the two most influential parameters in polymer 3D printing,” explained Parker. “We tested the strength of a variety of infill patterns and infill percentages to understand their strength-to-weight properties (how material efficient it is).”
The team also examined how uniform these properties remained across different build directions. “Specimens can be built from left to right, bottom of the build plate to the top of the build plate, and up through the build plate. These variations can lead to inconsistencies,” Parker said. “We are aiming to find a set of 3D printing parameters that give us good material efficiency and good strength in all 3 dimensions.”
The student team had five minutes to present this information to the ASM judges and answered questions for two minutes. Despite some initial uncertainty, the team ultimately felt prepared for their delivery. “Because of the emphasis of presentations in our classes, our presentation stood out due to the content it covered and the communications skills of our team,” said Parker.
Still, the team was surprised by their victory. “We saw other projects with much larger scopes than ours, huge applications and extensive literature reviews. Metals are talked about more than polymers, but that’s exactly why we chose this project. We wanted to add literature to a topic that does not have a lot,” they shared.
The team’s focus on polymers worked to their advantage. “This is what set us apart from everyone else. Our research was new, so our results were more novel than the other presentations. In other words, the other presentations were big fish in an ocean. Our research was a big fish in a lake,” said Parker.
The team began the project in winter 2024, finalizing testing the week of the presentation. However, their work didn’t unfold without obstacles. “Things don’t always go as planned,” Parker admitted. “Early on, we had improper fractures in our specimens, and no one knew how to fix it because no one else had done this before. This led to us discovering a hole in the current literature. We developed a new way to test these specimens. If everything had gone smoothly, our work wouldn’t have been as rewarding.”
Through their work, the team is contributing to the growing body of knowledge in polymer 3D printing and helping shape future studies in this field.