Speed and accuracy evaluation of additive manufacturing machines

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to establish a general method for achievable speed and accuracy evaluation of additive manufacturing (AM) machines and an objective comparison among them.Design methodology approach - First, a general schematic is defined that enables description of all current...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Rapid prototyping journal 2011-01, Vol.17 (1), p.64-75
Main Authors: Brajlih, Tomaz, Valentan, Bogdan, Balic, Joze, Drstvensek, Igor
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Additive manufacturing
Additives
Analysis
Electrical equipment
Factorial design
Hypotheses
Linearity
Machine tools
Methodology
Methods
Placement
Process engineering
Quality control
Rapid prototyping
Studies
Velocity
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Summary:Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to establish a general method for achievable speed and accuracy evaluation of additive manufacturing (AM) machines and an objective comparison among them.Design methodology approach - First, a general schematic is defined that enables description of all currently available AM machines. This schematic is used to define two influential factors describing certain parts' properties regarding the machines' yield during manufacturing. A test part is defined, that will enable testing the influence of these factors on the speed and accuracy of manufacturing. A method for implementing and adapting test parts is established for individual machine's testing. This method was used to test four different machines that are predominantly used in Slovenia at the moment.Findings - Research has proven that the machine's yield had a predominant influence on the achievable manufacturing speeds of all the tested machines. In addition, the results have shown different ranges of achievable manufacturing speeds for individually tested machines. Test parts' measurement results have shown comparable achievable accuracies for all the tested machines.Research limitations implications - Speed evaluation is based on a 2k factorial design that assumes the linearity among individual points of the experiment. This design was chosen to keep the method as simple and quick as possible, in order to perform testing on those machines otherwise used in industrial environments. Accuracy evaluation was limited by a rather small sample size of ten fabricated test parts per machine.Practical implications - The presented evaluation method can be used on any existing or future type of AM machine, and their comparative placement regarding achievable manufacturing speed and accuracy.Originality value - The presented method can be used to evaluate a machine regardless of the AM technology on which it is based.
ISSN:1355-2546
1758-7670
DOI:10.1108/13552541111098644