This document summarizes research on minimizing form errors in additive manufacturing. It discusses how process parameters like slice thickness, orientation, and supports can impact form errors like staircase effect, cylindricity, and flatness. Adaptive slicing, optimized orientation, and contour shaping are presented as methods to reduce specific form errors. The effects of slice thickness and orientation on cylindricity error and build time are experimentally tested. Optimizing process parameters can improve geometric accuracy and surface finish of additively manufactured parts.

1. Minimization of Form Errors In Additive
Manufacturing
Presented by :
SANJEEV SINGH YAADV
ROLL NO.133565
M.TECH 1ST YEAR

2. INTRODUCTION
 Rapid Prototyping (RP) is the process of building prototypes in slices using a layered
approach.
 RP processes such as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Stereolithography (SLA) and 3D
Printing have been developed
 RP allows prototypes with complex and intricate shapes to be built very easily.
 The cost and time advantages associated has made RP extremely popular with product
designers during the early design stages.
 The popularity of RP has naturally led to the extension of using additive layering
manufacturing techniques to manufacture tools, dies and industrial parts in a rapid manner.

3.  Parts created by AM have to consistently satisfy critical geometric tolerances or the parts
should be accurate.
 There is a need to study RP parameters that influence tolerances on critical features of the
manufactured part. Due to the nascent stage of RM technology, the effect of the RM process
parameters on form errors has not been researched in detail.
 Accuracy in additive manufacturing (AM) is evaluated by dimensional errors, form errors
and surface roughness of manufactured parts.
 Types of form errors are : cylindricity errors, staircase errors & flatness errors.

4. PROCESS PARAMETERS
The main process parameters in RP are :
 Orientation: Orientation refers to the direction with respect to the part in which the slices
are built in the machine.
 Slicing: Slicing can be performed uniformly by using slices of equal height or by adaptive
slicing using slices of unequal heights. Slicing refers to the segmentation of the part into
layers.
 Supports: Supports are additional materials which are added during manufacturing to
support holes, overhangs and unsupported features.
 Tool path planning: It refers to the determination of the geometric path for building each
individual layer.

5. FORM ERRORS
 The generation of form errors in parts manufactured by RM depends upon the process parameters
chosen by the designer during the part build.
 The process parameters, namely slice thickness, orientation, support structures and 2D tool path
planning, directly impact the final part accuracy both individually and in combination with each
other.
 Types of form errors are:
1. Flatness & straightness errors
2. Cylindricity errors
3. Staircase errors

6. STAIRCASE ERROR
 AM process approximates the object by layers with vertical edges.
 The stacking of the layers does not match the original CAD model.

7.  Extent of this staircase effect depends on layer thickness relative orientation of the build
direction.
 Minimum layer thickness is known for a process.

8. METHODS TO REDUCE STAIR CASE ERROR
The reduction of staircase effects can be categorized into different classes adaptive slicing,
contour shaping, and optimization of the build orientation.
Adaptive Slicing :
 The staircase error can therefore be reduced by using thinner layers.

9.  Many adaptive slicing algorithm that can vary the layer thickness in relation to local
geometry have been proposed.

10. OBJECTS SELECTED FOR INVESTIGATION
 Three objects were modelled using the Solid works package for demonstration of the slicing issues.
 Three STL files of different tolerances were generated for each object.
 One of these STLs for each object was used to show the effect of slice thickness on the layering error
and surface finish.

11. SCREENSHOTS OF SLICED SPHERE STL FILES

12. SCREENSHOTS OF SLICED ALBLOCK STL FILES

13. SCREENSHOTS OF SLICED BATTERY CARRIER
STL FILES

14. PROBLEMS WITH ADAPTIVE SLICING :
 Thin layers increases the build time.
 The potential savings of adaptive slicing is lost by conventional adaptive slicing methods
which slice all parts of given build with same resolution regardless of their dissimilar
surface characteristics.

15. BUILD TIME VS. SLICE THICKNESS

16. Optimization of Build Orientation
 Usually, build orientation is optimized based on the following objectives: support
structure, trapped volume, building time, and surface finish.
 Another approach is based on the empirical model derived from data collected
experimentally.

17. ORIENTATION BASED ON PROCESS PLANNING
ERROR

18. ORIENTATION BASED ON NUMBER OF LAYERS

19. Contour Shaping
 The undesirable feature from the staircase effect is primarily due to the layer edge being
vertical in most LM processes.
 The “stair-stepped” effect can only be combated by contouring the actual edge of each layer
to match that of the actual desired part geometry.
 The approach taken with the CAM-LEM project [Cawley et. al, 1996],[Zheng et al., 1996] is
to use sloped rather than vertical edges. The CAM-LEM process uses a high-powered laser
with a 5-axis positioning system to machine sloped surfaces on the edges of each layer.

20. CYLINDRICITY
 According to ANSI standards : “Cylindricity is a condition of a surface of revolution in which
all points of the surface are equidistant from a common axis. A cylindricity tolerance specifies
a tolerance zone bounded by two concentric cylinders within which the surface must lie.”
 Analysis of cylindricity error on RM parts is performed by the following three methods:
(a) simple geometric model,
(b) simulating the cylinder surface from a CAD model and
(c) simulating the cylinder surface from an STL file.

21. METHODOLOGY TO MINIMIZE CYLINDRICITY
ERRORS

22. SLICE THICKNESS & ORIENTATION VS
CYLINDRICITY ERROR

23. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT :
 Test part :
 Optimal part orientation from experiments

24. FLATNESS/STRAIGHTNESS ERROR
 The flatness error of a nominal flat feature is defined by ASME as the minimum tolerance
zone between two offset planes which completely enclose the points sampled from the
manufactured feature.

25.  Warpage has an adverse effect on the geometric accuracy of the fabricated parts. It
could be in a form due to upwards curling of the part at either edges or only one
edge.

26. MINIMIZING FLATNESS ERROR
 Using proper temperature setting for particular materials is important to fabricate
a good part.
 Optimizing orientation and slice thickness.
Relative
Measureme
nts
SLA SLS FDM LOM
Flatness B C A D
A-D: Ranking in the order of best to worst

27. TEST MODEL

28. CONCLUSION
In this report three types of form errors have been quantified:(i) Stair stepping error due to slicing
of components, (ii) cylindricity error, and (iii) flatness or straightness error. It has been shown
that the layering error increases, and the surface finish quality and build time decreases, with
increasing slice thickness. The form error is shown to decrease for certain orientations of the part,
for which the number of layers is also reduced. The application of the algorithm objects shows
that it is possible to determine preferred orientation of objects using these error criteria. Various
methods of minimizing different forms of form error are discussed as: adaptive slicing, preferred
orientation, contour shaping etc.
These are essential for the growth of application of rapid prototyping in manufacturing sector.

29. REFRENCES
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