Abstract

This study evaluates two non-contact sensors for characterizing the surface topography of parts manufactured by Material Extrusion of Polymers (MEX/P): a ConoPoint-10 conoscopic holography sensor (CH) and a Gocator 2410 laser line profile sensor (LTS). Seven 40 × 40 × 10 mm prismatic specimens made from different technical-grade polymers were digitized using a zigzag scanning strategy. Point clouds were analyzed according to the ISO 21920 series [2], calculating the Ra and Wa parameters from 40 profiles extracted from a central 30 × 30 mm surface region.

Both sensors demonstrated potential for characterizing MEX/P surface topography. However, CH performance was limited by the optical properties of certain materials, whereas LTS offered greater material versatility and higher digitization productivity by covering larger areas per scan. These findings support further investigation into sensor integration for in-process surface quality monitoring during additive manufacturing.

Keywords

Additive manufacturing, MEX/P, Surface topography