A comprehensive review: metrology in additive manufacturing and 3D printing technology

Additive manufacturing (AM) is making a big leap in the manufacturing technology world primarily due to its unique capability to produce parts in a layer-by-layer fashion from the digital 3D model with immense versatility in terms of design complexity. In addition, AM does not require any additional tooling and can produce parts with minimal to no material loss. Despite these technological advantages, AM is not making inroads to its potential, mainly due to a lack of fundamental understanding of all the AM processes and cohesive efforts in standardization, metrology (the science of measurement), qualification and certification. As a result, AM produces parts with higher complexity and features yet lacking dimensional accuracy, precision, the required level of tolerances and intended material properties. Particularly, the process-specific standardized metrology and inspection methods for the parts made by AM play a major role in imparting the desired quality and subsequently facilitate the process of certification of the AM part. Considering this, the present article provides (1) a comprehensive review of generic metrology and in-situ, real-time inspection methods that are currently utilized for the parts produced from conventional manufacturing processes in use, as well as (2) a comprehensive review of metrology and in-situ, real-time inspection methods currently and/or may be utilized for the parts produced from AM processes. In addition to these, the appropriate metrology and inspection methods are recommended here for various AM processes. NSWC Corona, the leading agency for the U.S. Navy’s Metrology and Calibration (METCAL) program, is playing an important role towards addressing these AM metrology challenges.