ORIGINAL ARTICLE Effect of process parameters on mechanical properties of VeroBlue material and their optimal selection in PolyJet technology Arivazhagan Pugalendhi 1 & Rajesh Ranganathan 1 & Manivannan Chandrasekaran 1 Received: 12 June 2019 /Accepted: 3 December 2019 # Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract PolyJet technology is one of the additive manufacturing technologies, which can produce complex geometries with variety of textures. The 3D printed complex geometry parts need better mechanical behaviour. The mechanical properties of a fabricated product depend on several process parameters such as build orientation, layer thickness, material and surface finish. This paper aims to study the effect of printing mode and type of surface finish on the mechanical properties of VeroBlue material used in PolyJet technology. The tensile, flexural and shore hardness tests are carried out to determine the mechanical response of the fabricated specimen. Four different combinations are derived from printing mode (high quality (HQ) and high speed (HS)) and finish type (matte (M) and glossy (G)). Findings indicate the HS-G specimens have better mechanical property and are faster in production and cheaper than HQ-M, HQ-G and HS-M. Highest average tensile strength of the HS-G (49.77 MPa) is deviated by 11.19% from standard value. Tensile specimens of HS-G save 60.86% of printing time and 14.72% of cost than HQ-G. This research paper provides a unique way of meeting optimal selection process parameters. Finally, a case study was carried out for the selected application with optimized process parameters. Keywords Additive manufacturing . PolyJet . Mechanical properties . Printing mode . Surface finish 1 Introduction Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies is one of the most favourable areas in the manufacturing to produce complex geometrical components [1]. Furthermore, they enable the manufacture of huge variety of prototypes and functional components involving complex geometries [2]. AM needs precise building parameters before design and fabrication [3]. Because of this, it is most essential to reduce manufactur- ing cost and attain mechanical properties requirements [4]. Unfortunately, factors affecting mechanical property of the 3D printed part and the contributing factors and interactions were not established well [5]. Especially, in PolyJet technolo- gy, these factors are not analysed appropriately [6]. In many applications, material properties provided by the manufacturers are not practically suitable, whereas the property of individual material is most important to develop hybrid materials, high strength polymers and biocompatible materials. Therefore, new engineering polymers with diverse characteristics should be developed to expand PolyJet appli- cations. This is certainly to determine life of the 3D printed parts using PolyJet [7]. Further, the need is to examine the effect of process parameters on mechanical properties along with their optimal selection is very important [ 8 ]. Understanding the need, this work is focused on investigating the mechanical property of the PolyJet printed parts and fur- ther, increasing novel application of PolyJet technology for the development of innovative products [3]. 2 Literature review AM is increasingly adopted for the creation of innovative products and functional parts [9]. The manufacture of func- tional parts using AM could take advantage of the increased design possibilities to enhance part functionality [10]. This is because traditional or non-traditional machining process such as casting or moulding cannot produce high complex parts without the tooling constraint. If tooling constraints are * Arivazhagan Pugalendhi arivazhagan.mech02@gmail.com 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Civil Aerodrome Post, Coimbatore, TN 641014, India The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-019-04782-z