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Path planning effect for the accuracy of rapid prototyping system

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Abstract

Stereolithography (SL) is one of the rapid prototyping (RP) systems that use liquid photopolymer resin as the raw material for building prototypes. The photopolymer type of the RP system employs lasers to selectively expose the surface of the liquid resin. The absorbance of energy leads to photo-polymerization that transfers the liquid resin into solid. Subsequently, the phenomenon of volume shrinkage is unavoidable, and the curl distortion changes with the different laser scan paths, even affecting the geometric profile of the final-parts. The volume shrinkage and curl distortion are the major causes that lead to poor accuracy of the built prototype. In order to understand and improve the curl distortion and the geometric profile, so as to find a simple and suitable laser scan path. This paper first of all uses simulation and experiment to explore the deformation and shrinkage during the process of photo-polymerization while the liquid resin uses a laser beam to carry out single line scanning or single layer scanning in liquid free surface, and further understands the final change of geometric profile. Secondly, it investigates into the curl distortion and changes of geometric profile occurred in the three-dimensional part by different scan paths. Finally, a simple, proper, and effective laser scan path planning is suggested to decrease the curl distortion, and promote the dimension accuracy and the profile of the final-parts. Besides, this paper also mentions the feasibility of multi-optical processing.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support from the National Science Council of the Republic of China under the grant No: NSC92-2212-E011-001. The authors would like to thank the rapid prototyping laboratory of the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Professor J.Y. Jeng and Assistant Professor Y. L. Cheng for their useful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, 43 Keelung Road, Section 4, Taipei, 106, Taiwan

    You-Min Huang

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, China Institute of Technology, 245 Yen-Chiu-Yuan Road, Section 3, Nankang, Taipei, 115, Taiwan

    Hsiang-Yao Lan

Authors
  1. You-Min Huang
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  2. Hsiang-Yao Lan
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Correspondence to You-Min Huang.

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Huang, YM., Lan, HY. Path planning effect for the accuracy of rapid prototyping system. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 30, 233–246 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-005-0085-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-005-0085-y

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