Quality improvement of optically translucent parts manufactured from LS and SL

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.