Research data supporting the article "Polishing of metal 3D printed parts with complex geometry: Visualizing the influence on geometrical features using centrifugal disk finishing"

Parts produced with metal additive manufacturing often suffer from a poor surface finish. Surface finishing techniques are effective to improve the quality of 3D printed surfaces, however they have as downsides that they also slightly change the geometry of the part, in an unpredictable way. This effect on the geometrical features of complex parts has received little attention. In this research, we illustrate a method to visualize the impact of surface finishing techniques on geometrical features, as well as their effectiveness on parts with high shape-complexity, by using centrifugal disk finishing as a case study. We designed and 3D printed test parts with different features using selective laser melting, which were coated with a blue metal lacquer prior to polishing. After polishing, the blue lacquer was eroded away from the spots that were easily reached by the polishing process, yet had remained on the surfaces that could not be reached by the process. We used measurements of material removal and image processing of the remaining blue lacquer on the surfaces to analyze these effects. Using this method, we were able to derive a number of specific design guidelines that can be incorporated while designing metal AM parts for centrifugal disk finishing. We suggest that this visualization method can be applied to different polishing methods to gain insight into their influence, as well as being used as an aid in the design process.

采用金属增材制造（Metal Additive Manufacturing）制备的零件往往存在表面光洁度欠佳的问题。表面处理工艺可有效改善3D打印表面的质量，但该类工艺存在显著弊端：会以不可预测的方式小幅改变零件的几何外形。目前，这类对复杂零件几何特征的影响尚未得到足够的研究关注。本研究以离心圆盘抛光（Centrifugal Disk Finishing）为研究案例，提出了一种可可视化表面处理工艺对几何特征影响的方法，同时可评估其对高形状复杂度零件的处理效果。我们采用选择性激光熔融（Selective Laser Melting）技术设计并3D打印了带有不同特征的测试零件，并在抛光前为其喷涂蓝色金属清漆。抛光完成后，抛光工艺可触及区域的蓝色清漆会被侵蚀去除，而无法被触及的表面则会保留原有清漆。我们通过测量材料去除量以及对表面残留的蓝色清漆进行图像处理，来分析上述影响效应。借助该方法，我们得以推导出多项可应用于面向离心圆盘抛光的金属增材制造零件设计的专属设计准则。我们认为，该可视化方法可推广至不同的抛光工艺，以深入了解其对零件的影响，同时可作为零件设计过程中的辅助工具。