A Test Part for Evaluating the Accuracy and Resolution of a Polymer Powder Bed Fusion Process

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) has many potential industrial applications because highly complex parts can be fabricated with little or no tooling cost. One barrier to widespread use of AM, however, is that many designers lack detailed information about the capabilities and limitations of each process. To compile statistical design guidelines, comprehensive, statistically meaningful metrology studies need to be performed on AM technologies. In this paper, a test part is designed to evaluate the accuracy and resolution of the polymer powder bed fusion (PBF) or selective laser sintering process for a wide variety of features. The unique construction of this test part allows it to maximize feature density while maintaining a small build volume. As a result, it can easily fit into most existing selective laser sintering builds, without requiring dedicated builds, thereby facilitating the repetitive fabrication necessary for building statistical databases of design allowables. By inserting the part into existing builds, it is also possible to monitor geometric accuracy and resolution on a build- and machine-specific basis in much the same way that tensile bars are inserted to monitor structural properties. This paper describes the test part and its features along with a brief description of the measurements performed on it and a representative sample of the types of geometric data derived from it.