4.

Process Planning Issues in Layered Manufacturing (LM)

Rapid Prototyping(RP), 3D Printing(3DP),Solid Free-Form fabrication(SFF)

Layered Manufacturing: layerby layer

fabrication of 3D physical models
directly from a CAD model
A kind of additive manufacturing process
(or material increase process)
Constructs objects by producing very thin
crosssections of the part,
one on top of the other, until the solid
physical part is completed.
Provide all kinds of prototypes, such as
visual, functional, and
production prototypes.
First machine: 3D system in 1986, builds
objects by curing thin
constructive slices of certain ultraviolet light
sensitive liquid resins with a
lowpower laser.

Advantages
Simplifies the intricate 3D construction process
in that essentially 2D slices are being created
and stocked together
1)

Allows to build parts with complex shapes that

are virtually impossible to machine

2) Short processing time. Models can be usually
built within hours.
3) Reduced cost.
4) Shorter designtomarket time.

Various LM Techniques
Liquidbased
Process: Material in liquid state solid state
Methods: Photocuring, single laser beam method, masked lamp,
two laser
beam

Solidbased
Process: Melting and subsequent solidification of the material
(except
powder)
Methods: cutting and gluing/joining, melting and solidifying/fusing

Powderbased
Process: Sintering of powder in grainlike form
Methods: Joining/binding using laser or binder/glue

Main Processing Steps in LM

PreProcess
Input: Part CAD Model
Convert CAD model to STL format
Determine orientation (building direction?)
Slicing the STL model to generate profile of each layer
(thickness?)
Layerbylayer fabrication

PostProcess

 Support removal, cleaning, rinsing, etc.

Postcure

STL (the defacto standard)

A solid model represented using
triangular facets

Each facets has

3 vertices (with XYZ
coordinates)
A normal vector pointing out
of the solid.
N

Advantage:
Computational efficient for finding
Intersections

Process Planning Issues in LM

Stair stepping phenomenon
Each layer cannot accurately conform to the CAD
geometry in the vertical plane.
The thicker the layer, the larger the stepping error.
1)

Part orientation (building direction) selection

 No stepping: important faces and dimensions should be

built parallel to the slice axis.
Careful selection of part orientation could lead to less
layers, hence lessen the build time.
A compromise must be made on the selection of part
orientation so that there will be no detrimental effects
on the other features of the part.

Process Planning Issues in LM

Positive deviation or negative deviation?

The most favorable case would be the errors are positive so

that excess
materials can be carefully removed
By needing to remove excess materials, additional
processing is needed

Layer thickness selection

The thinner the slices, the greater the resolution

However, the smaller the slice thickness (more slices), it
requires a longer
time for data processing, larger data files and longer build time

The use of support structures

Structures are often required to support unstable geometries

as they are
built
Support structures can be built together in the same way the

parts are
manufactured as it is not possible to manually position
prefabricated fixtures
A secondary operation is needed to remove the support
structure which may
require considerable effort and time

Process Planning Issues in LM

Summary

Building direction:
overhang (need support)
accuracy, surface finish
processing time?
Slice thickness:
Accuracy
Processing time

Material Properties
Metals produced using additive manufacturing have
structure, properties, and
performance that can differ from their cast and wrought
counterparts.
Density: While it is challenging to reproducibly obtain
additively manufactured
materials that are 100 percent of the reference density, additive

manufacturing methods
can yield metal densities in excess of 99 percent of the
reference density. Some materials
are reported to have been fabricated at full density and some
have been reported with a
spread of densities (e.g., 99.2 to 99.5 percent). (
Residual stress issues: Residual stresses can be "very high" in
metal parts produced
using laserbased additive manufacturing methods. Mitigation
and optimization
strategies are required e.g., changing the substrate temperature,
scan direction, the
application of postdeposition processing, insitu shock wave
processing.
Mechanical behavior: Generally, because of the refined
microstructure of metals
produced using additive manufacturing, an increase in strength
and decrease in ductility
is expected compared with conventional wrought alloys.
Differences in fracture
toughness and behavior under dynamic conditions are unknown.

Applications

Concept/design visualization.
Fitting/engineering test.
Directuse components
Patterns for investment casting and sand casting.
Shortlife mould making.
Reverse engineering (when an existing
component needs to be

reproduced but the designs are not available).

Medical applications (Surgery prototypes of
internal organs,
tumors, bones, etc).

Patterns for Investment & Vacuum

Casting
Previously, mold tool designed for wax patterns comes at a
high price.
Now, patterns for investment and vacuum casting can be
fabricated via RP
processes.
Patterns produced by RP are generally costeffective if a
complex design is
needed in small quantity
(up to 50).
Some of the widely used RP processes are SLA, SLA and FDM.