SANDBLASTING POST-PROCESSING ANALYSIS TO IMPROVE OF FUSED FILAMENT FABRICATIONS PARTS

Abstract

Sandblasting is a post-processing process that is required to improve the surface due to the layered nature of fused filament fabrication parts. This paper presents preliminary work based on full factorial design of experiment, considering pressure (100 kPa and 700 kPa), time (10 s and 120 s), distance (10 mm and 370 mm) and aluminium oxide abrasive which is 106 µm and 29.5 µm of particles size as the input factors. The effect of the parameters on the surface roughness (Sa) for flat and curve surface, material usage and energy consumption allow were analysed. The result shows that both Sa for flat and Sa curve surface were highly influenced by the abrasive particles size and time with the highest changes of Sa for flat and curve reaches up to 2.825 µm and 6.090 µm respectively. This study provides information on how sandblasting parameters should be selected in improving surface quality and resource usage.