On the surface quality of additive manufactured parts

This paper presents the development, implementation and application of a methodology to predict and control the surface quality of the additive manufacturing products based on an accurate representation of the cusps’ geometric model. A non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) model representing the geometry of cusps generated by layer-based manufacturing is employed, and its parameters are extracted by running experimental study of the fabricated test specimens. The significant difference of the results obtained using the developed models with what is used in common practice is discussed and demonstrated. Using the developed model, a unified solution to estimate the surface roughness based on the local surface gradient on the part and the selected fabrication layer thickness is presented. The results show that the developed methodology effectively estimates the local surface roughness of the fabricated products.