If the printing material is polymer I have the certain than DFM have a good accuracy with lower cost. The machine as the input are cheap.

It depends on what component you want to make.

The additive metal process using laser sintering produces very accurate geometry using nano-sized particles. However the metal is slightly porous and rough, so maybe unsuitable for gas wet surfaces due to the losses. There are techniques for filling in the porosity, but this involves more than one metal (lower melting point to fill the gaps)

Have a look at Richard's research.

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/engineering/departments/m3/people/richard.cobb

or here

http://www.cylex-uk.co.uk/reviews/viewcompanywebsite.aspx?firmaName=keyworth-rapid-manufacturing-limited&companyId=19329271

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/mediacentre/wmgnews/?tag=Rapid+prototyping

Plastic polymer set with a laser can give excellent surface finishes, but angled surfaces can be stepped rather than flat.

There is also a trade off between accuracy and time to make the component.

Please explain more on what you are trying to make, and we can give a more appropriate answer.

Regards

Paul

Dear Mr Paul:

Thank you for your detailed answer.

Of course there is a trade-off between accuracy and time.

I also agree that Laser use in polymer set can give excellent layer accuracy.

This is why I asked this question to know whether there is any proper comparison between most available techniques to provide precise models within the same given time.

My task is to investigate whether further development to the most promising techniques in terms of model accuracy is feasible.

Best regards