Accuracy of Additive Manufactured Parts

Additive manufacturing processes and materials are described with respect to their ability to generate finished products. The accuracy of produced parts is seen as an important criterion for this technology to compete with subtractive or constant volume technologies. From the existing literature can be concluded process variation is high and part accuracy is not better then IT grade 9. The manufacturing process itself is complex and dependent on a number of machine, material and geometry parameters. A better understanding of the heat transfer within the product build environment will assist in the future to improve the process and therefore the resulting parts’ accuracy.