Optimal Surface Finish of Material Extrusion 3D Printed Products Using Ultimaker Cura Interface

Abstract

Rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing are the emerging trends in due to fast updating technology in all processing areas. An attempt is made in this paper to find the optimum parameters like layer thickness, infill pattern, ironing settings in Cura software interface. Two different filament material Polylactic Acid (PLA) and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) materials are selected to make the products. The objective is to get fine surface finished products at the outer surface of the components. Keeping the machine parameters constant, the fabrication parameters of components are varied by Cura software interface. The surface finish of the components made is measured with surf-tester. It is observed that the smooth surface finish of 2.159 μm is obtained for ABS as filament material, line fill pattern, smaller internal layer thickness and larger top and bottom layer thickness.