Cost, sustainability and surface roughness quality - A comprehensive analysis of products made with personal 3D printers

Additive manufacturing (AM), generally also referred to as 3D printing, has gone through vast development in the past 20 years which still continues. In particular, the market segment of personal 3D printers has achieved an average annually growth rate of approximately 170% from 2008 to 2013. The purpose of this research is to identify the best AM process applied in personal printers in terms of cost, sustainability, surface roughness, and human perception, as these aspects are essential for this new thriving market segment's future. In addition, the research investigates which objective roughness parameters are suitable for qualifying subjective perceptions. The primary AM processes, Fused Deposition Modeling, Stereolithography and Polyjet printing are in the focus of this research. Manufacturing costs as well as environmental impact are calculated, five independent roughness parameters (Ra, Rz, Rq, Rsk, and Rku) are measured and the subjective perception of samples is assessed through sensorial analysis. In conclusion, samples manufactured with Polyjet printing have the best subjective quality, but the highest costs and environmental impact. Biplots of roughness parameters versus sensorial ranking indicates a significant correlation between maximum peak-to-valley height Rz and tactile and visual perception, while the kurtosis of the topography height distribution Rku correlated best to the hedonic rank.