3DCastleBenchy: a process-independent benchmark for additive manufacturing

Abstract

Purpose The 3DCastleBenchy has been developed to facilitate wider adoption and use of additive manufacturing benchmarking artefacts which encourage both technical and non-technical users and designers to connect the growing number of technologies available. This tool will help people working with additive manufacturing to gain understanding of the limitations and design rules for each process. Design/methodology/approach Benchmarking is of critical importance for additive manufacturing, allowing for comparisons between technology capability, process optimisation and design guidelines. This work presents the 3DCastleBenchy, a design which balances aesthetic appeal and specific, measurable features which can be used for comparing various additive manufacturing processes. Findings The benchmark design was fabricated with three fundamentally different metal additive processes, laser-directed energy deposition (L-DED), laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) and metal extrusion (MEX). These resulting parts were then analysed, thereby allowing common defects and limitations of each process to be identified, namely, the overhang limitations of traditional L-DED, the cracking that can occur in L-PBF and the deposition tool path artefacts present in MEX. Originality/value Existing benchmarks typically focus on either tolerance engineering features, or they are purely artistic/demonstrative pieces. The 3DCastleBenchy has been designed to find a balance between these objectives to facilitate communication of design for additive manufacturing concepts.