Quality improvement of optically translucent parts manufactured from LS and SL
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve the quality of additive manufactured optically translucent parts by investigating the manufacturing issues, analyzing lithophane production criteria and identifying the best translucent material and additive manufacturing (AM) technology.
Design/methodology/approach
Figured lithophanes were laser sintered on a 3D Systems SinterStation® HiQ™ with varying layer thickness and plate thickness. Laser sintered (LS) polyamide (PA) 12 blanks were cyanoacrylate infiltrated and polished. Optical properties and performance were compared with the original LS blanks. Lithophanes and blanks were manufactured using 3D systems stereo lithography apparatus (SLA)® Viper ™si2 station, and optical properties and lithophane performance were compared with the LS specimens.
Findings
When building in the XY plane, it is optimal to sinter with the minimum layer thickness (0.076 mm) and maximum plate thickness (5 mm). Cyanoacrylate infiltration and polishing assists in reducing the LS PA 12 plate surface roughness, but polishing does not affect the lithophane performance. The best LS candidate should have an absorption coefficient of 0.5/mm using a white light source. Improved resolution but reduced contrast was observed on stereolithography (SL) specimens compared to LS parts.
Research limitations/implications
Transmittance experiments were performed on three SL parts which was not sufficient for optical property calculation. Limited literature was found for new material exploration.
Originality/value
It is the first effort to study systematically quality improvement issues of LS PA optically translucent parts. A comparison is made of optical performance between parts made using LS and SL.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Billy Herring and Jeff Rodocker from Harvest Technologies for their help and guidance in the SL processing. The authors are grateful to Mark Philips, David Leigh and Ben Fulcher for their valuable experience, advice, and thoughtful conversations on LS.
Citation
Yuan, M. and Bourell, D. (2016), "Quality improvement of optically translucent parts manufactured from LS and SL", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 87-96. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-01-2014-0008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited