Powder bed fusion metrology for additive manufacturing design guidance

• Published in: Additive manufacturing 2019-01, Vol.25, p.239-251
• Main Authors: Allison, Jared, Sharpe, Conner, Seepersad, Carolyn Conner
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Design guidelines; Metrology; Powder bed fusion; Selective laser sintering
• ISSN: 2214-8604; 2214-7810
• DOI: 10.1016/j.addma.2018.10.035

Design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) guidelines are important for helping designers avoid iterations and leverage the design freedoms afforded by additive manufacturing (AM). Comprehensive design guidelines should incorporate a variety of features of interest to designers, and given the wide variety of AM processes and their associated capabilities and limitations, those guidelines may need to be process- or even machine-specific. One way to generate detailed DFAM guidelines is to implement a metrology study focused on a strategically designed test part. This paper describes how quantitative design guidelines are compiled for a polymer selective laser sintering (SLS) process via a metrology study. As part of the metrology study, a test part is designed to focus specifically on geometric resolution and accuracy of the polymer SLS process. The test part is compact, allowing it to be easily inserted into existing SLS builds and therefore eliminating the need for dedicated metrology builds. To build a statistical foundation upon which design guidelines can be compiled, multiple copies of the test part are fabricated within existing commercial builds in a factorial study with materials, build orientations, and locations within the build chamber as control factors. Design guidelines are established by measuring and analyzing the as-built test parts. The guidelines are summarized in this paper and documented in a publicly accessible, online web tool.