Investigating the Dimensional Accuracy and Surface Roughness for 3D Printed Parts Using a Multi-jet Printer

The shortcoming of conventional manufacturing (CM) is that it cannot manufacture geometrically complex parts with high repeatability and good surface properties. In order to overcome these shortcomings of CM, additive manufacturing (AM) is the major alternative to the CM. However, the usefulness and performance of parts manufactured through AM are closely correlated with dimensional accuracy and surface roughness, SR (Ra). Therefore, an investigation was carried out in this study for dimensional accuracy and surface roughness of 3D printed parts fabricated in different orientations. In the investigation, four orientation patterns are considered. The part is lying on the base (A), part is lying on the long edge (B), part is lying on the short edge (C), and the part is inclined to 45°(D) to the surface of the base plate (refer to Fig. 2). Orientations, i.e., A, B, C, and D, were explored for the variations in dimensional deviation and SR. In addition, an analysis was carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on fabricated parts. The results obtained exhibit a variation in dimensional accuracy and change in SR with different part orientations. Among all orientations, the largest surface area of the component in contact with the base plate (A) was the most suitable.