THE APPLICATION OF VAT POLYMERIZATION TECHNIQUEFOR WORKPIECE FABRICATION

Vat polymerization is one of the additive manufacturing techniques. The focus of this study is the performance assessment of a vat polymerization system that has the digital light processing (DLP) system as its ultraviolet (UV) source. In this study, ADLP vat polymerization system was utilized to fabricate a work piece, and the objective is the measurement of the average surface roughness indicating the surface quality of a work piece. After a work piece was fabricated at a certain condition focused on different input factors (exposure time, bottom exposure time, bottom layer count, layer thickness, lifting speed, lifting distance, and retract speed), the average surface roughness was measured using a surface roughness tester. The measurements were done on the top side of a work piece. Three measurements were performed on three different spots to investigate the surface quality. The results indicate that the values of average surface roughness measured from the different spots fluctuate in a small range.