Additive manufacturing makes it possible to produce complex and customized mechanical parts, but theprocess-induced dimensional deviations typically induce incorrect assembling cascading in reducedfunctional reliability. This research focuses on the rapid tolerance analysis and assembly performance of3D printed mechanical parts, based on which a series of experiments and optimization were carried out. Arepresentative set of components will be additively manufactured and measured for key dimensions andgeometric deviations. The gathered data will be subjected to tolerance analysis and statistical examination,thus discovering the correlation between process parameters, dimensional precision and assembly fit.According to these results, optimization in terms of design and process conditions will be suggested andfurther experimental work will validate the proposals. The anticipated result would be a process thatimproves the reliability and performance of 3D printed part assembly from prototype to functional end-use.
Dimitrakopoulos et al. (Mon,) studied this question.