Comparison of the Accuracy of 3D Printed Prototypes Using the Stereolithography (SLA) Method with the Digital CAD Models

Abstract

Abstract. Each printing method and the materials used for prototype construction have distinct advantages and drawbacks. A large part of the 3D printer producers indicates high printing accuracy (positioning accuracies from 100 µm up to 1 µm and layer thickness from 100 µm tо 5 µm). In the process of layers deposition, the material is softened, melted or irradiated with a certain light source to polymerize. Thus, during the printing process, the volume of the materials is changing causing shrinking or expansion which often leads to the occurrence of precision errors in the prototype as opposed to the digital model. This phenomenon leads to distortions of the printed object known as a curling effect. Certain chemical compounds are added by the producers to multiple materials in order to enhance their mechanical and technological properties. However, this often results in changes of some printing parameters influencing the precision and quality of the manufactured object. The aim of the particular study is to establish the allowances with regard to the accuracy during manufacturing precise objects used in micro technologies as well as the necessary adjustments in dimensions because of the shrinkage and the positioning of the SLA 3D printed parts from photopolymer material.

Statistical methods for design and testing of 3D-printed polymers

“…Depending on the object's placement on the build plate, they found more significant and irregular deviations from CAD values. [ 68 ]…”

An Overview of Additive Manufacturing of Polymers and Associated Composites

“…Controlling polymerization parameters including exposure time, UV intensity, speed of printing, layer thickness are very crucial to achieve proper printing with SLA [ 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ]. Both top-down and bottom-up approaches provide very high resolution and accuracy [ 61 ]. However, this process is very slow compared to other methods.…”

Additive Manufacturing of a Miniature Functional Trocar for Eye Surgery

“…Previous studies have attempted to find the optimal process settings for increasing the accuracy of SLA processes, although it remains unlikely that these will be the same for all possible designs. The influence of process settings such as build orientations, printing direction, layer height, and material properties on the dimensional accuracy have been extensively studied (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27).…”