Surface Roughness Measurement in Laser Powder Bed Fusion Manufacturing Process

This study has investigated the robustness of different tools for profile and areal roughness measurements, profilometer, metrology software and fitting element-based analysis, on AlSi10Mg parts produced by the laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process. The tools used for areal measurements have led to a difference of about 6%. Furthermore, the areal method has been used to observe the surface morphology. A better correspondence between P- and S-parameters has been found compared with that reported in the literature between the S- and R-parameters. For profile measures, it has been shown that the cut-off length can be used as evaluation length.