The Effect of Layer Thickness and Orientation of 3D Printed Workpieces, on The Micro- and Macrogeometric properties of Turned Parts

Abstract

3D printing technologies have developed significantly over the last 30 years, having a major impact on all segments of today’s industry. Additive Manufacturing (AM) offers the possibility to produce both prototype and finished parts, reducing product development time and costs while producing higher quality results. However, producing high precision and quality surfaces, such as threads, is still difficult with 3D printing technologies. To eliminate these problems, there are already machines that combine some form of the 3D printing process and of subtractive manufacturing technology. In this type of production, extra material is always left on the surface of the workpiece during the printing process, and functional surfaces are created by removing this extra material. In this scientific study, the authors have dealt with the effect of layer thickness and orientation of the 3D printed workpiece, for the micro- and macro-geometric properties, on the printed and the machined (turned) parts. The authors measured the surface roughness, the deviation from nominal size and determined the cylindricity, after printing and machining. During turning, the effects of printing orientation and chip formation process were investigated. The aim was to investigate the effect of the orientation and layer thickness of the printed objects, on the quality and cylindricity of the final turned parts.