Mass Customization: Reuse of Digital Slicing for Additive Manufacturing

Author(s):  
Tsz-Ho Kwok ◽  
Hang Ye ◽  
Yong Chen ◽  
Chi Zhou ◽  
Wenyao Xu

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, enables production of complex customized shapes without requiring specialized tooling and fixture, and mass customization can then be realized with larger adoption. The slicing procedure is one of the fundamental tasks for 3D printing, and the slicing resolution has to be very high for fine fabrication, especially in the recent developed Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) process. The slicing procedure is then becoming the bottleneck in the pre-fabrication process, which could take hours for one model. This becomes even more significant in mass customization, where hundreds or thousands of models have to be fabricated. We observe that the customized products are generally in a same homogeneous class of shape with small variation. Our study finds that the slicing information of one model can be reused for other models in the same homogeneous group under a properly defined parameterization. Experimental results show that the reuse of slicing information have a maximum of 50 times speedup, and its utilization is dropped from more than 90% to less than 50% in the pre-fabrication process.

Author(s):  
Tsz-Ho Kwok ◽  
Hang Ye ◽  
Yong Chen ◽  
Chi Zhou ◽  
Wenyao Xu

Additive manufacturing, also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, enables production of complex customized shapes without requiring specialized tooling and fixture, and mass customization can then be realized with larger adoption. The slicing procedure is one of the fundamental tasks for 3D printing, and the slicing resolution has to be very high for fine fabrication, especially in the recent developed continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) process. The slicing procedure is then becoming the bottleneck in the prefabrication process, which could take hours for one model. This becomes even more significant in mass customization, where hundreds or thousands of models have to be fabricated. We observe that the customized products are generally in a same homogeneous class of shape with small variation. Our study finds that the slicing information of one model can be reused for other models in the same homogeneous group under a properly defined parameterization. Experimental results show that the reuse of slicing information has a maximum of 50 times speedup, and its utilization is dropped from more than 90% to less than 50% in the prefabrication process.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1142 ◽  
pp. 245-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anil Saigal ◽  
John Tumbleston

In the rapidly growing field of additive manufacturing (AM), the focus in recent years has shifted from prototyping to manufacturing fully functional, ultralight, ultrastiff end-use parts. This research investigates the stress-strain behavior of an octahedral-and octet-truss lattice structured polyacrylate fabricated using Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology based on 3D printing and additive manufacturing processes. Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) is a breakthrough technology that grows parts instead of printing them layer by layer. Lattice structures such as the octahedral-and octet-truss lattice have recently attracted a lot of attention since they are often structurally more efficient than foams of a similar density made from the same material, and the ease with which these structures can now be produced using 3D printing and additive manufacturing. This research investigates the stress-strain behavior under compression of an octahedral-and octet-truss lattice structured polyacrylate fabricated using CLIP technology


Author(s):  
Judah Balli ◽  
Subha Kumpaty ◽  
Vince Anewenter

The purpose of this paper is to understand and research literature on the “continuous liquid interface production (CLIP)” of 3D objects to address the current challenges. This proprietary technology was originally owned by EiPi Systems but is now being developed by Carbon 3D. Unlike conventional rapid prototyping of printing layer-by-layer to print 3D objects, CLIP is achieved with an oxygen-permeable window made of proprietary glass membrane and the ultraviolet image projection plane below it, which allows the continuous liquid interface to produce 3D objects where photo-polymerization is restricted between the window and the polymerizing part. This process eliminates the time requirement in between the layers resulting in the faster production of 3D objects with a resolution less than 100 microns. It is a known factor that the “supports” play a vital role in any liquid based 3D printing techniques and this does not change in CLIP. In addition to the parameters of support structure like shape, size, strength, ease of removability, surface finish after removal of supports etc, CLIP needs to deal with different types of materials. The support structure needs to be designed according to the respective material’s properties. There are two broad categories of the materials available from Carbon 3D, prototyping resins, and engineering resins. While the prototyping resin is used for the cosmetic models and the engineering resins are used for the practical applications. There are 6 types of engineering resins developed for the end user; of these, EPU and CE are more challenging to work with. EPU parts needs more supports and careful handling till the completion of post processing as the material is soft. CE parts are fragile and needs more systematic handling to complete the successful production. Although printing parts of EPU and CE is more time consuming when compared to the normal CLIP process, they are worth for their unmatched industrial applications. None of the existing 3D printing technologies offers this quality. The support structure, orientation and pot life are the influencing parameters for all resins. In this study, it is statistically proven that by optimizing the part orientation with respect to the slicing of each layer and customized supports; parts are built way better than before. The part orientation is optimized by ensuring each layer is supporting the subsequent layer and minimizing the islands. It is noticed that the results are always better by tilting the part 5 to 10 degrees in both X and Y axis in the build setup and this applies for most of the straight geometrical parts. For parts of specific geometry which can create a vacuum while pulling up the part needs to be oriented in a different way or create a re-closable air passage that can prevent the vacuum being created.


Machines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Marcin Ziółkowski ◽  
Tomasz Dyl

3D printing conquers new branches of production due to becoming a more reliable and professional method of manufacturing. The benefits of additive manufacturing such as part optimization, weight reduction, and ease of prototyping were factors accelerating the popularity of 3D printing. Additive manufacturing has found its niches, inter alia, in automotive, aerospace and dentistry. Although further research in those branches is still required, in some specific applications, additive manufacturing (AM) can be beneficial. It has been proven that additively manufactured parts have the potential to out perform the conventionally manufactured parts due to their mechanical properties; however, they must be designed for specific 3D printing technology, taking into account its limitations. The maritime industry has a long-standing tradition and is based on old, reliable techniques; therefore it implements new solutions very carefully. Besides, shipbuilding has to face very high classification requirements that force the use of technologies that guarantee repeatability and high quality. This paper provides information about current R&D works in the field of implementing AM in shipbuilding, possible benefits, opportunities and threats of implementation.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Knaack ◽  
◽  
Dennis de Witte ◽  
Alamir Mohsen ◽  
Marcel Bilow ◽  
...  

The imagine series, developed at our faculty at TU Delft, is a book series championing ideas, concepts and physically built results. It is for designers and architects: to inspire them and to create a culture of imagination. At the start, the editors needed to promise the publisher a series of ten books and started with imagine 01, “Façades”, in 2008. The series continued with volumes about interesting (“Concretable”, 08), relevant (“Energy”, 05) and unusual aspects of architecture (“Deflateables”, 02, which dealt with vacuum constructions, and “Rapids”, 04, which took a first look into the world of additive manufacturing for buildings, something we now call 3D-printing). Now, with number 10 we have completed the cycle. It is again about the development and the potentials of additive manufacturing for the built environment. This technology is developing very rapidly and promises to be revolutionary for the construction of buildings. It has the potential to truly bring mass-customization on a detail level. And it is interesting to see how imagine 04, “Rapids”, helped to accelerate this development – some of the ideas mentioned in that issue felt really naive and impossible at the time. Today, a few years later, our colleagues at MIT refer to these books and are now printing with glass! This is what the book series was meant to do: to showcase potentials and to imagine possibilities.


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