Experimental determination of surface roughness of parts obtained by rapid prototyping

In the Rapid Prototyping / Rapid Manufacturing / Rapid Tooling process, surface finish is critical as it can affect the part accuracy, reduce the post processing costs and improve the functionality of the parts. This paper presents an experimental technique to determine the surface finish of parts built by the polyjet process. The experiment investigates the effect of the parameters: build orientation and surface type obtained by polyjet (mate or glossy). Experiments were conducted using a Taylor Hobson roughness checker and an ETALON TCM 50 measuring microscope. The results are focused on roughness and texture surface parameters for horizontal surfaces.