Volumetric Error Compensation Technique for 3D Printers

One of the main disadvantages for the use of 3D printers in final product manufacturing is its lack of precision and poor dimensional accuracy. This paper proposes volumetric error compensation technique based on pattern artifacts. This technique is applied to an Objet 350 V 3D printer. It is developed the kinematic model of the machine and its error functions are approximated by Legendre polynomials of order 3. As reference measurement device a Zeiss PMC MMC 850 with VAST XT scanning head is used. To materialize the points conical sockets are used that are measured automatically by a self-centering probing system. These measurements allow through an iterative optimization process to identify the coefficients of the polynomials of the error model. After manufacturing various pieces of test patterns, the results achieved are close to 80% reduction in mean error points.