Quality Assessment of 3D Printed Products

The present research considered the effects of different 3D printing parameters on the quality of 3D printed products. The parameters included printing direction, filament material and nozzle size. The quality assessment measures included surface finish and dimensional accuracy. Products were printed using FDM technology. A full factorial set of experiments were conducted. For each experiment, surface roughness and dimensional measurement were taken at different locations of the products. Experimental results showed that the small nozzle size results in better surface finish and fewer variations in Ra values. The adhesion between bed and products results in large variations in Ra values. The surface roughness of products is comparable to rough machining operations. Experimental results, also, showed that product dimensional accuracy is comparable to IT12 to IT16 manufacturing processes. Statistical analysis of results showed that the different printing parameters significantly affect the surface finish. For relatively larger dimensions, the material and nozzle size do not have a significant effect on dimensional accuracy.