Assessment of the Development Performance of Additive Manufacturing VPP Parts Using Digital Light Processing (DLP) and Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Technologies

Abstract

Non-metallic additive manufacturing technology has seen a substantial improvement in the precision of the parts it produces. Its capability to achieve complex geometries and very small dimensions makes it suitable for integration into strategic industrial sectors, such as aeronautics and medicine. Among additive manufacturing technologies, resin development processes demonstrate enhanced precision when compared to other methods, like filament printing. This study conducts a comparative analysis between digital light processing (DLP) and liquid crystal display (LCD) photopolymerization processes to assess the performance of the technologies and how process parameters affect the accuracy of the resulting parts. The research evaluates the impact of the discretization process used during the digital model export, determining the optimal mesh size and then analyzing the geometric deviations that occur by altering various operating parameters of the process. Statistical methods will be employed to identify the most significant parameters in the manufacturing process. Among other aspects, the precision of manufacturing technologies regarding the movement axis has also been evaluated. Regarding the minimum size of the features that can be fabricated, DLP technology has surpassed LCD technology, successfully producing features as small as 200 µm, compared to 500 µm for LCD technology.