A benchmark study on rapid prototyping processes and machines: quantitative comparisons of mechanical properties, accuracy, roughness, speed, and material cost

Various kinds of layer manufacturing process are available, such as stereo lithography (SL), fused deposition modelling (FDM), Poly-jet, selective laser sintering (SLS), three-dimensional printing (3DP), laminated object manufacturing (LOM), etc. The object of the current study is the quantifications and comparisons of the processes' characteristics using representative apparatus and various materials. Through the tests, mechanical proper-ties, such as tensile and compressive strengths, hardness, impact strength, and heat resistance, and surface roughness, geometric and dimensional accuracy, manufacturing speed, and material costs were compared for each process and machine. It was verified that the SL process is advantageous in hardness, accuracy, and surface roughness and the Poly-jet process in tensile strength at room temperature. The SLS process was advantageous in compressive strength and manufacturing speed, the 3DP process in speed and material costs, and the LOM process in heat resistance. The FDM and LOM processes were superior in impact strength in the scanning direction, but the change of building direction significantly reduced the tensile and impact strengths.