1. Summary
Our project explores how print temperature and flow rate ratio affect the weight and surface quality of PLA Aero, a lightweight foamed filament for RC aircraft and drones. By creating a visual display at the Design and Innovation Lab @ Wendt, we aim to help users optimize their prints, reduce waste, and minimize trial and error by clearly demonstrating these parameter effects.
2. Introduction/Background
In weight-sensitive applications like drone parts or RC aircraft, reducing the weight of 3D printed parts without sacrificing geometry or usability is essential. Traditional PLA is dense and inflexible in this regard. PLA Aero is a foamed PLA filament that expands during printing to reduce part density by up to 50%. However, the behavior of this material is highly dependent on print parameters like temperature and flow rate, where small changes can result in major differences in weight, print quality, and structural properties. This is the main idea we will look to understand and explain.
Currently, there is a lack of documented, visually accessible studies on how print settings affect PLA Aero prints. Community knowledge is anecdotal, scattered across forums and maker blogs. Most users must rely on trial and error to find ideal settings. Furthermore, PLA Aero’s foaming effect introduces additional complexity; higher temperatures increase foaming but can compromise detail or cause stringing. Without clear guidelines, users waste time and filament dialing in settings. Our project aims to bridge this gap with a reproducible study and visual reference, as well as display a visual board for others looking to print with this material, which hopefully will help save them time.
3. Impact
This project will provide a clear and practical resource for future 3D printing users working with PLA Aero at the Design and Innovation Lab @ Wendt. Being able to directly compare how different print parameters impact weight and print quality will make this lightweight filament much more accessible. Users will save time, material, and waste by referencing our display. This could also encourage the Design and Innovation Lab @ Wendt to purchase PLA Aero for students to use.
This project can be a practical example of how a visual and hands-on learning tool can help make complex materials more understandable. This is especially true in an educational setting such as UW-Madison. By clearly showing how changes in print parameters affect PLA Aero’s performance, this display gives students and other users a more approachable way to learn about foamed filaments. These materials are often avoided because there is not enough clear guidance on how to use them effectively. By building and sharing this display in the Design and Innovation Lab @ Wendt, we can add to the collective knowledge at UW–Madison and support confident prototypes and experiments. This is something that can be done whether by individual users, engineering students, or campus groups/clubs working on related projects.
4. Methods/Approach
We will investigate how two key variables—print temperature and flow rate ratio—affect the mass and surface quality of parts printed with PLA Aero. These variables influence the material’s foaming behavior, which affects its expansion and density. To investigate their effects, we will conduct controlled experiments where one parameter is varied while the other stays constant. The test part will be a 3D-scanned airfoil as it is relevant to lightweight applications and its curved geometry, which allows us to evaluate geometric stability and surface finish.
Data collection will include weighing each part using a digital scale, taking surface texture photos, and comparing printed geometry to the original CAD or scan file. The Bambu X1 Carbon printer will be used for its precise temperature control, speed, and advanced slicing ability to ensure consistency and accuracy. While some users have experimented with PLA Aero, there is no consistent visual showcase or systematic weight study. Our project’s physical display offers a tangible way for users to see how temperature and flow rate settings affect PLA Aero prints. By showcasing physical samples that demonstrate these effects, users will have a clear reference to guide their projects, eliminating inefficiencies that come with trial and error.
There are potential risks, such as foaming distorting part geometry, and high print temperatures or speeds affecting surface quality. To mitigate these risks, we will start with conservative settings and gradually adjust them for optimal results. Each sample will be carefully evaluated for surface quality, and we will use pre-slicing and fast draft settings to optimize build times, keeping within the 8-hour print limit. By managing these risks effectively, we will gather reliable data while minimizing time and material waste.
5. Future Plan
If our initial tests go well, we’d like to expand the project by looking at other settings like infill density, pattern, layer height, and extrusion width. We’re also considering running basic strength tests like compression or bending to see how lighter parts hold up. To make the display more hands-on, we plan to design a stackable setup where each part shows a different parameter combo that people can pick up and compare. Each piece will have a QR code linking to its respective 3mf file and photos so others can easily recreate or learn from it. We’re also thinking of putting together a short pamphlet or PDF with everything we’ve learned to share digitally and post around the Design and Innovation Lab at Wendt. The ultimate goal is to convince Makerspace to start purchasing this material for any student to use
For the part design, we plan to start with a simple airfoil. This will be relevant to the use case of the material and a simple part for us to print repeatedly without any hard geometries to print. We’ll be printing with PLA AERO, a lightweight, foamed PLA that’s highly sensitive to temperature changes. All prints will be done on the Bambu X1 Carbon, which offers reliable temperature control and material management through its AMS system. We’ll use a 0.4 mm nozzle unless the part design requires something different. The prints will use Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF/FDM), taking advantage of the Bambu Lab’s advanced flow and temperature tuning to keep comparisons consistent across different settings. We will also use the 3D scanners at the Makerspace and the software to clean the meshes up.
The objective of this trial is to determine how variations in print temperature affect both the weight and quality of a standardized part. The main variable of interest in this experiment is the weight of the printed part measured in grams. By adjusting the print temperature and flow rate ratio, we will see how that influences the density and overall mass of the part. Table 1 shows a potential outline of the different experiments that will be done by adjusting flow rate ratio and temperature.
Table 1: Proposed outline of Print Parameters to be used for our Project Testing
| Flow Rate Ratio (-) | |||
|
0.3 |
0.6 |
0.9 |
|
|
Temperature (°C) |
Weight Value (grams) | Weight Value (grams) | Weight Value (grams) |
|
220 |
Weight Value (grams) | Weight Value (grams) | Weight Value (grams) |
|
240 |
Weight Value (grams) | Weight Value (grams) | Weight Value (grams) |
|
260 |
Weight Value (grams) | Weight Value (grams) |
Weight Value (grams) |
Each part will be weighed immediately after printing and photographed under identical lighting for texture comparison. These results will allow us to properly represent the key feature of this material: foaming properties. We should have 9 different prints, all of which use the same 3D model, with varying weights. This outline of the project’s future plan will allow us to iterate toward a successful final project.