Multi-scale Surface Metrology of Additive Manufactured Surfaces

Additive manufactured surfaces are known to be problematic. Topographic measurements of laser melted surfaces manufactured by additive manufacturing are analyzed in this work. A method for selecting the measurement size and the size of calculation regions for studying surface topographies is discussed. Additionally, the ability to repeat surface measurements must be established before the influence of manufacturing variables on surface roughness can be properly compared. Also, this work presents a correlation experiment between the linear energy density of the laser used in the laser melting process and conventional and multi-scale parameters, which can support additive manufacturing process design