Investigation of the Impact of Power Consumption, Surface Roughness, and Part Complexity in Stereolithography and Fused Filament Fabrication

Abstract Today, Additive Manufacturing (AM) is being utilized in a plethora of fields and applications. This study investigates two of the most commonly used AM technologies, Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) and Stereolithography (SLA) under the different part complexities and their effects to finished part quality. The process parameters investigated are infill density (ID), infill pattern (IP), and layer height (LH). The output variables observed are power consumption (PC), surface roughness (SR), and mass. Statistical analysis of experimental data indicates that LH is the most influential parameter for all output variables except mass. A validation study is later performed using three specimens with more diversely complex geometries. The model complexity is then evaluated and analyzed using three different ratios. Normalizing PC with respect to volume indicates a lower PC per unit volume for FFF. Experimental data also indicates SLA has a better surface finish and uses less power. This paper reports the state-of-the-art FFF and SLA process knowledge blocks created through this research study.