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Quality improvement of optically translucent parts manufactured from LS and SL

Mengqi Yuan (School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China)
David Bourell (Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA)

Rapid Prototyping Journal

ISSN: 1355-2546

Article publication date: 18 January 2016

415

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

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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