Cost, sustainability and surface roughness quality – A comprehensive analysis of products made with personal 3D printers

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM), generally also referred to as 3D printing, has gone through vast development in the past 20 years which still continues. In particular, the market segment of personal 3D printers has achieved an average annually growth rate of approximately 170% from 2008 to 2013. The purpose of this research is to identify the best AM process applied in personal printers in terms of cost, sustainability, surface roughness, and human perception, as these aspects are essential for this new thriving market segment's future. In addition, the research investigates which objective roughness parameters are suitable for qualifying subjective perceptions. The primary AM processes, Fused Deposition Modeling, Stereolithography and Polyjet printing are in the focus of this research. Manufacturing costs as well as environmental impact are calculated, five independent roughness parameters (Ra, Rz, Rq, Rsk, and Rku) are measured and the subjective perception of samples is assessed through sensorial analysis. In conclusion, samples manufactured with Polyjet printing have the best subjective quality, but the highest costs and environmental impact. Biplots of roughness parameters versus sensorial ranking indicates a significant correlation between maximum peak-to-valley height Rz and tactile and visual perception, while the kurtosis of the topography height distribution Rku correlated best to the hedonic rank.

Selecting low-cost 3D printers using the AHP method: a case study

“…More recently, sustainability aspects started to be considered when evaluating personal 3D printers [2]. Anyway, as can be seen from the papers cited, there is still no consensus about a standard geometry to assess neither industrial AM machines nor personal 3D printers, and few works are devoted to real application components.…”

“…The market segment of desktop 3D printers has gained much importance in recent years, with an average sales growth reaching 88.6% from 2012 to 2015. Desktop, low cost or personal are the terms generally used to define additive manufacturing (AM) systems sold by less than $5000, which are mostly based on the fused filament fabrication (FFF) technique [1,2].…”

“…In short, those machines selectively deposit molten polymers by a nozzle as the print head, or the building platform, moves on the x-y plane and can generate complex three-dimensional objects in a layer-wise approach [2,3]. Most personal 3D printers adapt design configurations from the Stratasys's Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM ® ) technology [4] and from the reference RepRap project [5].…”

“…The technical performance of low-priced 3D printers has been assessed based on their capacity to produce a standard part. Several benchmarking models have been proposed over the years, which focus on different aspects such as accuracy, surface finish, mechanical properties, sustainability and cost [2,8,[11][12][13]. Although they provide guidelines to choose among the many 3D printers available in the market, the results obtained with standard parts not always reflect a real demand or consider a specific application.…”

Printing Architecture: An Overview of Existing and Promising Additive Manufacturing Methods and Their Application in the Building Industry

“…When producing the same benchmark samples, the PolyJet parts account for the highest costs, while FDM and SLS have the lowest total costs per part. However, by printing more than one part in a single build, the costs per part will probably decrease (Li et al 2017;T. A. Grimm & Associates Inc. 2010).…”