Researchers from Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Türkiye, have issued an update to previously published work on adaptive slicing and the variable binder amount algorithm (VBAA) in Binder Jetting in the Rapid Prototyping Journal. The authors stated that the first study featured aspects that needed improvement and, since publication, they have performed a much more detailed analysis of the subject and obtained more favourable results.

Adaptive slicing and VBAA are used in the study to increase the manufacturing speed in binder jetting. Taguchi method was used to optimise the layer thickness and saturation ratio in VBAA. According to the Taguchi experimental design, twenty-seven samples were produced in nine different conditions, three replicates each.

As a result of the tests, the optimum Additive Manufacturing condition was decided to be 180–250 µm for layer thickness and 50% for saturation. The separate test sample designed to implement adaptive slicing was produced in three pieces: adaptive (180–250 µm), thin layer (180 µm) and thick layer (250 µm) with the determined parameters. The roughness values of the adaptive sliced sample and the thin layer sample were similar and better than the thick layer sample. A similar result was obtained using 12.31% fewer layers in the adaptive sample than in the thin layer sample.

The authors stated that use of adaptive slicing in Binder Jetting Additive Manufacturing has become more efficient and expect its use to increase. In addition, a cost effective and straightforward image processing method has been developed to calculate the surface roughness of the parts.