Proceedings of

th th
6 International & 27 All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference
(AIMTDR-2016)
College of Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA
December 16-18, 2016

Finishing of Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) Printed

Parts by CO2 Laser
N.N. Kumbhar1 and A.V. Mulay2
1,2Departmentof Production Engineering & Industrial Management, College of Engineering, Pune–411005
E-mail: 1kumbharnn88@[Link], [Link]@[Link]

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology has great potential comparing with conventional because
Additive Manufacturing of its flexibility of 3D manufacturing capabilities. From AM technology Fused Deposition Modelling
Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is an extrusion-based manufacturing technique. FDM technique gains distinct advantage in
Laser Micromachining manufacturing industries because of its ability to manufacture part with complex shapes without any
CO2 Laser tooling requirement and human interface. Simultaneously it is difficult to achieve higher precision
Surface Roughness part because of stair casing effect which is occurring on printed surface. In this paper, work which is
carried out to improve the surface quality using laser machining is presented. In the experiment CO2
laser with 10.6 µm wavelength and maximum 40 wattage power output which is also controllable is
used. The method was reviewed as post processing operation in AM technology and experimental
results are obtained by using test surface fabricated with ABS plastic. The post processing results are
compared with initial values of surface roughness and the outcome result shows great reduction in
surface roughness and reliable uniformity of finished surface.

1. Introduction
Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology has been widely
used in the modern industry because of its flexibility in
manufacturing with higher speed, but there is one difficulty of
achieving higher precision parts as technology is based on layer
by layer manufacturing which comes with stair casing effect on
surface. Therefore, how to improve part quality is most
important concern of industrial applications of AM, especially
when rapid prototyping parts will be used as pattern in
moulding process and EDM (Electro Discharge Machining)
electrode in the field of rapid tooling [1-3].
The numerous AM processes differ according to the
materials and methods of patterning and fusing layers they
employ. Major processes include material extrusion, material
jetting, binder jetting, sheet lamination, vat
photopolymerization, powder bed fusion and directed energy
deposition. Some of these melt or soften material to produce the
layers, while others cure liquid materials using different
sophisticated technologies [4]. Among which material extrusion
(Fused Deposition Modelling–FDM shown in figure 1) widely
used in industry for product development [5]. Fig. 1. Fused deposition modelling (FDM)
The FDM fabricate parts in ABS, PLA plastics using the Among these post processing techniques, laser
layer by layer deposition of extruded materials through a nozzle micromachining is one of the most relevant process. Laser
using filaments from a spool. Despite of these, surface micromachining process is based on the melting and later
roughness has become the main issue [6, 7]. solidifying of a micro layer of material using a laser beam as
To improve the surface quality several attempts had been heating source in order to get a smoothed topography. The laser
made by controlling various process parameters of Additive micromachining process has been applied for more than ten
manufacturing and also applying different post processing years for the polishing of non-metallic materials, such as
techniques on components manufactured by AM [8]. diamond coatings, optical lenses and silicon wafers [9].

63 ISBN: 978-93-86256-27-0
 th th
6 International & 27 All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR–2016)
College of Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA

Thus, this paper is emphasizes on study of laser To conduct the experimentation by using CO2 laser on
micromachining process as post processing operation in AM, FDM printed part a methodology was followed. Methodology
experimentation on FDM printed surface and comparison of steps are shown in figure 2,
initial results with final results.
4. Experimental details
2. Previous work
4.1 Part printing
Poor surface quality is one of the most important
limitations of the process, the insufficient surface quality can be As every AM method required *.stl file (Standard
enhanced by employing a variety of surface finishing Tessellation Language (*.stl) is an open standard for describing
technologies that are available in the market including objects for AM) to develop the component.
mechanical processes (machining and abrasive sandblasting), In this work for experiment purpose a *.stl file was
chemical processes (acid etching and oxidation) and thermal developed by using Autodesk Inventor 2015 CAD software.
processes (Laser micro machining) [8]. Laser micromachining The CAD file and *.stl file was shown in figure 3 (a & b).
(re-melting) is a valuable alternative to these techniques being a
clean and reproducible process with a good controllability.
Laser re-melting can provide an improvement of 90% in the
average and total roughness values of the top surfaces of the
parts that are built by SLM (Selective Laser Melting) [10].
Researchers [10, 11] have started investigating the use of laser
re-melting in the post processing step to improve the surface
finish of parts after fabrication by using additive manufacturing
technique.
The present work involves an experimental study to
investigate the influence of laser polishing on the surface of (a) CAD file
FDM printed part by using ABS plastic as work material with
roughness value in between 4-24 μm.
3. Methodology for experiment

Methodology for Experimentation

*.stl file Development using CAD file

(b) *.stl file

Printing of Work piece by using FDM technique Fig. 3. *.stl file development
By using same *.stl file with dimension of 250 x 50 mm a
work piece is printed by using Dimension (786) Elite 3D Printer
Surface Roughness Measurement using Talysurf which is based on FDM technique shown in Fig. 4 (a) &
120L Equipment Fig. 4 (b) shows the 3D printed work piece.

Surface profile capturing using Rapid I Vision

System

Surface finishing using Laser micro aching on

printed work piece

Surface Roughness Measurement using Talysurf

120L Equipment

(a) Dimension (786) elite 3D printer

Surface profile capturing using Rapid I Vision
System

Comparison of results with initial surface

roughness
(b) 3D printed work piece
Fig. 2. *.stl file development from CAD file Fig. 4. Work piece printing

ISBN: 978-93-86256-27-0 64
 Finishing of Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) Printed Parts by CO2 Laser

4.2 Surface roughness measurement To identify the surface roughness of plate 20 reading are
takes at different location to cover entire area of plate. Table 1
The surface quality of the top surfaces was measured by a
shows the measured surface roughness values with 20 samples
roughness tester (Taylor Hobson Form Talysurf 120L) without
reading for each position and considered Ra value is calculated
any filter shown in Fig. 5.
by taking average of all the values.
Table 1
surface roughness values (µ m)
Sample Position
0º 45º 90º
1 4.773 3.836 3.415
2 4.703 5.165 3.065
3 3.835 5.355 3.945
4 5.743 3.843 3.51
5 4.297 4.324 4.047
6 4.343 5.014 4.531
7 3.488 4.413 4.529
8 4.873 3.822 3.954
9 3.85 4.262 3.786
Fig. 5. Taylor hobson form talysurf 120L 10 4.886 5.489 4.173
In this paper, the roughness of the parts is mostly derived 11 3.515 3.786 4.269
12 4.13 4.48 3.237
from three dimensional measurements and is expressed by the 13 4.438 5.18 3.177
arithmetic mean surface roughness (Ra). 14 3.651 4.743 2.915
The surface roughness was measured in three angular 15 4.131 5.183 3.308
positions 0º, 45º and 90º which are shown in figure 6 a, b and c. 16 4.389 4.909 4.007
17 4.159 4.354 3.476
18 4.008 5.276 4.297
19 5.19 4.361 4.294
20 4.338 4.715 3.719
Average 4.337 4.6255 3.7827
Average Ra = 4.2484 µm
4.3 High-resolution surface profile capture of 3D printed part
High-Resolution surface profile capturing was carried out
by Rapid–I Vision Inspection system which is shown figure 7.

(a) Position 1 (0º)

Fig. 7. Rapid I (vision inspection system)

Figure 8 shows the magnified surface of the printed plate
which gives idea about surface profile of 3D printed work piece.

(b) Position 2 (45º)

Fig. 8. Topography of printed surface

4.4 Surface finishing process

(c) Position 3 (90º) Surface finishing experiments are carried out on Epilog
Fig. 6. Surface roughness measurements Laser CO2 Laser Systems which shown in Fig. 9. The Epilog

65 ISBN: 978-93-86256-27-0
 th th
6 International & 27 All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR–2016)
College of Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA

Laser CO2 Laser Systems works on the mechanism of deep

ultraviolet (DUV) laser ablation of polymers is a photochemical
process in which the chemical bonds in the material are broken
and fragments thus formed are ejected in plasma plume. Unlike
the material interaction involving infrared or visible lasers of
10.6 µm which is CO2, where the laser produces fast-heating
and melting of the material, the photochemical ablation process Fig. 11. Laser micromachining on plate
sublimates polymers, converting them from a solid directly to 5. Experimental results and discussion
gaseous state in the form of gas/plasma plume. DUV laser
machining of polymers is a single-step machining process that After completing the experiments the surface roughness
produces minimal solid debris and heat-affected zones (HAZ). values are measured in 3 positions (0º, 45º and 90º) by Taylor
Hobson Form Talysurf 120L equipment. Table 3 and 4 shows
average surface roughness values for different combinations.
Table 3
surface roughness values (µ m)
600 dpi
Power (%) Speed (%)
10 20 30 40
100 0.8710 2.0432 3.1306 3.5794
90 0.7176 2.5798 3.3492 3.2358
80 1.9756 3.4424 3.3776 3.3048
70 2.0838 2.7866 3.2304 4.262
60 2.4946 3.3042 4.324 5.489
Fig. 9. Epilog laser CO2 laser systems layout 50 3.3508 4.531 4.743 5.014

The machine (Fig. 10) details are given below: Table 4

surface roughness values (µ m)
Laser -CO2
Wave-length -10.6 µm 1200 dpi
Resolution -User controlled 75 to 1200 dpi Power (%) Speed (%)
Power -User controlled 0-40 W 10 20 30 40
Laser Diameter -0.25 mm 100 0.6808 0.8414 2.7394 3.4984
90 0.238 0.646 3.15 3.5846
80 0.2962 1.783 3.8614 3.4952
70 1.8606 2.8722 3.7326 4.5292
60 0.579 4.0694 4.3243 4.2947
50 3.467 4.7156 4.5315 5.8935
The surface quality of the parts manufactured by FDM and
then exposed to laser micromachining exhibit a significant
improvement. This methodology generally results in a reduction
of average and total roughness values despite the utilization of
different process parameters (Resolution, Power and Restring
speed). The best results are however derived with the resolution
of 1200 dpi, 90% power and 10% of raster speed. The average
surface roughness value for the combination is 0.238 µm.
Figure 12 shows the Influence of power on surface
roughness value of printed parts. As power is increasing the
Fig. 10. Epilog laser CO2 laser systems surface roughness value decreases, but after 90% power
The micromachining was carried out on plated by roughness value is increased because of more thermal effect on
considering three parameters, the surface.
 Resolution
 Power Surface Roughness Ra (µm)
 Restarting speed of laser 5
The experiments are conducted by considering levels which
4
Ra Value (µm)

are given in table 2. The levels are selected as per the machine y = -0.0507x + 5.0499
R² = 0.8966 Surface
specification. 3 Roughness Ra
(µm)
Table 2 2
Parameters for experiment
1 Linear
Sr. No Parameter Levels
(Surface
1 Resolution 600 dpi & 1200 dpi 0
Roughness Ra
2 Power (0–40 W)-% 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 0 50 100 (µm))
3 Restarting speed of laser (%) 10, 20, 30, 40
Power (%)
The experiments are conducted on 3D printed plate by
combination of levels. Figure 11 shows the actual outcome of
laser micromachining on printed plate. Fig. 12. Influence of power on surface roughness

ISBN: 978-93-86256-27-0 66
 Finishing of Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) Printed Parts by CO2 Laser

The same plate was magnified by vision inspection based [2] John Kechagias, Vassilis Iakovakis, Manolis Katsanos, Stergios
Maropoulos, EDM electrode manufacture using rapid tooling: a review,
machine; the magnified images are show in figure 13. Fig. 13(a)
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4.2484 µm and figure 13(b) shows photograph of after [3] Cristian PISARCIUC, A review of unconventional procedures for
micromachining with Ra value of 0.238 µm. manufacturing tool electrodes used in EDM, RECENT, Vol. 15, no. 3(43),
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[6] Dzullijah Ibrahim, Songlin Ding, and Shoujin Sun, Roughness Prediction
(a) Before for FDM Produced Surfaces, International Conference Recent treads in
(b) After
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Ra = 0.238 µm
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parts is good. The optimized processing parameters were surface finish of products which are manufactured by Additive
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successfully implemented for improving the surface quality of SURFACES BY LASER. Power [W], 600, 900-1.
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improved to 0.228 µm after laser micro machining. The laser Laser polishing of parts built up by selective laser sintering, Machine
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polished surface typically exhibited smoother appearance
[11] Bhaduri, D, Penchev, P, Dimov, S & Soo, S 2015, 'Improving the surface
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compared with before polished surface. Anmoni, I Fassi, GJ Wiens & S Dimov (eds), Proceedings of the
4M/ICOMM 2015 Conference., 140, Research Publishing Services,
Acknowledgment Singapore, pp. 593-596, 4M/ICOMM2015, Milan, Italy, 31-1 April.,
10.3850/978-981-09-4609-8_140.
The authors acknowledge Department of Production
Engineering and Industrial Management, College of
Engineering, Pune (INDIA) for its lab utilization.
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