INVESTIGATION OF DIFFERENCES IN LIGHT TRANSMISSION IN TRANSLUCENT MATERIALS USED IN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.68302/std2026.vol2.83Keywords:
additive manufacturing, attenuation, fused deposition modeling, PETG, light transmittance, translucent materialsAbstract
The present study investigates the impact of filament colour and specimen thickness on overall light transmittance in fused deposition modelling printed transparent PETG. Flat specimens were prepared in six transparent colour variants (transparent, blue, neon green, orange, red, and yellow) and in thicknesses ranging from 1.0 to 3.5 mm. The measurements were conducted within a custom-built enclosed laboratory stand, thereby ensuring the elimination of ambient light interference. In order to verify the result stability, the transmitted light was measured at four nominal source power levels (200, 2600, 6600, and 10600 lx) and evaluated as normalized transmittance. For all of the materials that were analysed, there was a decrease in transmittance as specimen thickness increased. Transparent PETG demonstrated the highest transmittance from 1.0 to 2.5 mm, while yellow PETG exhibited the highest values at 3.0 and 3.5 mm. In the present study, the lowest transmittance was exhibited by blue PETG at all thickness levels, with the approach of complete attenuation being observed in thicker specimens. Neon green exhibited an intermediate level of transmission, while orange and red demonstrated comparatively reduced transmission following a notable decline between 1.0 and 1.5 mm. The normalized values were found to be consistent across the higher source power settings, thereby supporting the reliability of the measured attenuation trends. The findings of this study demonstrate that transparent tinted PETG filaments cannot be regarded as optically equivalent, and that specimen thickness is a significant factor in determining attenuation in printed components.
Supporting Agencies
The authors would like to thank the Research and Development Sector at the Technical University of Sofia for the financial support.Downloads
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Copyright (c) 2026 Kliment Georgiev, Misho Matsankov, Atanas Radulov, Mario Dechev, Teodor Demirev
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