Abstract
Many applications that exploit the manufacturing flexibility of additive manufacturing (AM) produce surfaces, primarily internal features, which cannot be measured using conventional contact or line-of-sight optical methods. This paper evaluates the capability of a novel technique to extract areal surface data from micro-focus X-ray computed tomography (XCT) from AM components and then generate surface parameter data per ISO 25178-2. This non-destructive evaluation of internal features has potential advantages during AM product research and commercial production. The data extracted from XCT is compared with data extracted using a focus variation instrument. A reference dimensional artefact is included in all XCT measurements to evaluate XCT surface determination performance and dimensional scaling accuracy. Selected areal parameters generated using the extraction technique are compared, including Sa, for which the nominal difference between the value obtained using XCT and used the focus variation method was less than 2.5%.
Highlights
Additive Manufacturing (AM) has emerged as the new paradigm in manufacturing
This paper evaluates the capability of a novel technique to extract areal surface data from micro-focus X-ray computed tomography (XCT) from additive manufacturing (AM) components and generate surface parameter data per ISO 25178-2
Selected areal parameters generated using the extraction technique are compared, including Sa, for which the nominal difference between the value obtained using XCT and used the focus variation method was less than 2.5%
Summary
AM enables the production of geometrically complex components, by manufacturing them in a layer-by-layer manner using a variety of techniques from powder bed fusion of topologically optimized metal components [1] to the fused deposition modeling of scaffold architecture for tissue engineering applications [2]. In terms of accurate tolerancing and developing the use of metal powder based AM within the wider manufacturing framework, there are significant issues that remain to be answered concerning the optimal traceable metrology techniques used to assess AM parts for geometry and surface texture. This is especially problematic when parts need to be mated on assembly or require a specific surface roughness. The published information on the development of post-process techniques to measure and characterize complex part surface topography produced by AM are limited and shows a dearth of advanced techniques (e.g. the use of areal topography parameter) to assess the relatively high surface roughness of AM parts
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