Tailoring surface roughness through the temporal variation of additive manufacturing process parameters

• Published in: International journal of advanced manufacturing technology Vol. 132; no. 7-8; pp. 3553 - 3566
• Main Authors: Hawthorn, Barnaby, Mummery, Ailsa, Mahmoodi, Nasim, Farhan Khan, Muhammad, Triantaphyllou, Andrew, Dyson, Rosemary J., Thomas-Seale, Lauren E. J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Springer London 01.06.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Additive manufacturing; CAE) and Design; CAM; Computer aided manufacturing; Computer-Aided Engineering (CAD; Engineering; Fused deposition modeling; Hypotheses; Industrial and Production Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Media Management; Nozzles; Original Article; Polylactic acid; Process parameters; Surface properties; Surface roughness; Print speed; Surface roughness; Polylactic acid (PLA); Nozzle temperature; Fused deposition modelling (FDM)
• ISSN: 0268-3768; 1433-3015
• DOI: 10.1007/s00170-024-13532-9

The benefits that additive manufacturing (AM) offers to the industry are generally well understood and appreciated. However, the current design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) methodologies and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) packages neglect to exploit the full potential that AM can offer through its unique ability to vary material characteristics whilst the final component geometry is being formed. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that additional design control can be gained through temporal DfAM (TDfAM). In this study, the ability to tailor the surface roughness of fused deposition modelling (FDM) AM polylactic acid (PLA) parts through the variation of two process parameters, nozzle temperature and print speed, is explored. The underpinning hypothesis is that variation of temperature and printing speed, can provide a significant change of surface roughness within one homogeneous part. This research demonstrated that nozzle temperature and print speed have a statistically significant effect on the surface roughness of the top and side surfaces. By increasing temperature and speed, the roughness of the side surfaces decreased and the roughness of the top surface increased. Furthermore, the in-silico implementation of TDfAM is demonstrated. As such, the research supports the hypothesis that TDfAM can enable additional control over the surface characteristics of a homogeneous part.