Details:
Summary:
According to Blum & Smithers-PIRA (2105), the collective industry which professional three-dimensional (3D) printing and printed electronics is projected to be $67.4 billion in 2015, double from the 2010 value, and this it is expected to grow to nearly $108 billion by 2020. As 3D printing technologies are frequently used to manufacture interchangeable parts and for applications such as rapid prototyping, it is little surprise that a growing body of research has examined the accuracy of these devices (e.g. Ostrout, 2015). It is customary for these studies to utilize digital microscopes together with appropriate imaging software to analyze and quantify the unique nature of 3D printed samples. It is recognized that such microscopes are generally rather costly, and are not especially intuitive to use. An alternative to digital microscopes would therefore be welcome, such a solution would need to be capable of measuring not only length and width (x and y directions), but also in height (z direction).