Assessment of dimensional accuracy of 3D printed part using resin 3D printing technique

Abstract

Resin 3-Dimensional (3D) printing technology is known for complex parts with fine features and accurate dimensions for its high quality, high-resolution. The ability to print dimensionally accurate parts, depends on equipment, materials and slicer, few of which are layer height, orientation, and exposure time. The modern technology allows designers to visualizing the component before it is manufactured, which reduces the design's challenges. Manufacturers can take this advantage of 3D printing to manufacture the components directly, but accuracy and precision must be maintained to the close extent. The printed part is not completely cured during printing process and it requires post curing. Here, Ultra Violet (UV) laser light adopted for post curing, which causes dimensional inaccuracies, it may lead to clearance and fits problem. In general, 3D printed objects are prone to size inaccuracies, the most common of which are variations in the linear dimensions and hole diameter. The consequences of these two types of faults on the dimensional accuracy of a typical component were explored. This article shows the experimental results for dimensional correctness of post-cured parts printed using resin 3D printing process. The study aimed in presenting the errors associated with the dimensional accuracy along with the interaction effects of process parameters using Design of Experiments. The contour plots and pareto charts are also presented, in order to understanding the effect of factors and their levels on output measures and most influencing factors for dimensional accuracy (DA) respectively. Based on the findings, it was observed that the dimensional errors are causing due to shape and size changes in the part, many times the larger error bars are observed for internal and external diameters than the liner dimensions. From the interaction plots it can be concluded that layer height of 0.06 mm is always referring to low deviation for all the output measures along with the exposure time of 3 and 5 sec and 00 and 150 x-orientation.