Rapid Manufacturing Process

(PE 3)
Module-3 (Part – 2)

5th Sem
Mechanical Engg Dept
GCEK, Bhawanipatna (ODISHA)
 MODULE-III (16 hrs)
❖ Laminated object manufacturing (LOM)
❖ Solid ground curing (SGC)
❖ Repetitive masking and deposition.
❖ Beam interference solidification,
❖ Holographic interference solidification special topic on RP using metallic alloys,
❖ Programming in RP modelling, Slicing, Internal Hatching, Surface skin films, support
structure.
❖ Software for RP: STL files,
❖ Overview of Solid view, magics, imics, magic communicator, etc.
❖ Internet based software,
❖ Collaboration tools.
Topics to be covered….
❖ Programming in RP modelling, Slicing, Internal Hatching, Surface skin films, support
structure.
❖ Software for RP: STL files,
❖ Overview of Solid view, magics, mimics, magic communicator, etc.
❖ Internet based software,
❖ Collaboration tools.
Slicing, Internal
Hatching, Surface
skin films, support
structure.
The common approach to
prepare the control
instructions (i.e., part
program) in all of the
rapid prototyping and
additive manufacturing
technologies involves the
following steps [7]:
1. Geometric modeling. This consists of modeling the component on a CAD system to define
its enclosed volume. Solid modeling is the preferred technique because it provides a
complete and unambiguous mathematical representation of the geometry. The important
issue is to distinguish the interior (mass) of the part from its exterior, and solid modeling
provides for this distinction.
2. Tessellation of the geometric model : In this step, the CAD model is converted into a format
that approximates its surfaces by triangles, with their vertices arranged to distinguish the
object’s interior from its exterior. The common tessellation format used in rapid prototyping
is STL2, which has become the de facto standard input format for nearly all RP systems.
3. Slicing of the model into layers : In this step, the model in STL file format is sliced into
closely spaced parallel horizontal layers. Conversion of a solid model into layers is
illustrated in Figure 1. These layers are subsequently used by the RP system to construct
the physical model. By convention, the layers are formed in the x-y plane, and the layering
procedure occurs in the z-axis direction. For each layer, a curing path is generated, called
the STI fi le, which is the path that will be followed by the RP system to cure (or otherwise
solidify) the layer.
STL FILES
➢ The STL files translate the part geometry from a CAD system to the RP machine.
➢ All CAD systems build parts and assemblies, store geometry, and generally do many
things in their own independent and proprietary way.
➢ Instead of having a machine that has to communicate with all of these different
systems, there is a single, universal file format that every system needs to be able to
produce so that an RP machine can process what a part looks like for slicing. This is
the STL file.

WHY STL FILES?

➢ Because slicing a part is easier compared to other methods such as B-rep (boundary
representation) and CSG (constructive solid geometry), which will need geometric
reasoning and data conversion.

STL is a file format native to the stereolithography CAD softsware created by 3D

systems. STL has several backronyms such a "Standard Triangle Language" and
"Standard Tessellation Language”
Figure 6.11 shows the representation of a cube in B-rep. The right-hand side of the figure
shows the data structure of the geometric entities.
➢ To calculate the interaction between the geometry and a plane that represents the slicing
operation is not very efficient. The slicing operation is computed by ‘‘intersecting’’ a
ray of virtual lines with the object of interest.
➢ In other words, it is necessary to compute the intersections between a lot of lines and
the object.
➢ The STL format allows us to transfer the slicing operation into a routine of finding the
interactions between lines and triangles.
➢ Basically, this operation judges whether the intersection point is within or outside the
triangles, and there are very efficient codes to do just that.

The reason that the STL format is the industry standard is because it can make the process
robust and reliable to get the correct result the first time, and because high-end data
processing tools, such as surface and STL repair and translation tools, are available in the
market.
 Figure (a) Figure (b)

The internal representation of a CAD model as shown in Figure (a) can be in B-rep or CSG
representations, while its STL representation is shown in Figure (b)
➢ The STL representation is often used as the standard format to interact between the
CAD model and an RP machine.
➢ The STL representation approximates the surfaces of the model by polygons, meaning
that STL files for curved parts can be very large in order to represent the original
geometry well.
Slicing the STL file
➢ The generation of a series of closely spaced 2D cross-sections of a 3D object is known
as slicing.
➢ Generally, the user can specify the Z-thickness of the slice.
➢ Typical thickness is 0.006 in. This is always an approximate process.
➢ The main error associated with this is the staircase error because the surface finish in the
Z-direction will not be good.
➢ After the STL part is properly oriented and positioned, the user then slices the part into
layers.
➢ Figure 1 shows the sliced file for the first
orientation of the cone. After the part is
sliced, it automatically generates the
support structure, as most RP software
does.

➢ For the first orientation of the cone, five

layers of support material were generated
under the base of the cone.

➢ Five layers is the machine default in order to allow the part not only to hold tight to the
plastic sheet in the FDM machine, but also to allow the part to be easily separated from
the plastic sheet after the build is complete.
➢ Figure 2 shows the same cone rotated 180°
so that it is sitting on its point. If the user
wanted to build the cone in the inverted
orientation, for whatever reason, the
software provides the user with the ability
to designate other support alternatives.

➢ One example would be to encapsulate the

part in support material to hold it in place.

➢ Figure 2 shows the support material

surrounding the part. The downside to this
selection is the build time.

➢ Since there is support material being deposited on every layer of the build, this will be
the longest build time compared to the build with the cone sitting on its base.
➢ After the orientation and the support decision have been made, the user then determines
the toolpath that the machine will use to build each layer.

➢ The toolpath allows a great variety of options to the user depending on finished part
strength, build time, or weight and surface finish.

➢ One of the biggest variables is the orientation of the toolpath.

➢ The software allows the user to set the orientation in each layer. For a more isotropic
part, it automatically sets the layers to a ±45° orientation with the exterior boundary
curve. This toolpath selection can be seen in Figures 3(a) and 3(b).

➢ It also has the capability to generate a ‘‘hollow’’ part by creating a toolpath with larger
air gaps in the middle that forms a mesh-like interior. This sparse fill, as it is called,
dramatically decreases material used, which in turn increases the build speed of the part
as shown in Figure 4.
 .

FIGURE 3(a): The toolpath shown in one layer. The FIGURE 3(b) The toolpath is also in 45° in a zig-zag
toolpath is 45° in a zig-zag pattern. Note that there is a pattern but in a different orientation.
toolpath that is along the boundary of the layer to
make the outer surface smoother.
FIGURE 4: This ‘‘sparse fill’’ generates a hollow part that is created with toolpaths with larger air gaps in the
middle that forms a mesh-like interior.
Internal Hatching
A SLA creates solid or partially solid SL parts with either acrylic or epoxy resins in
one of several build styles. The three most common being:

❑ ACES,
❑ STARWEAVE
❑ QuickCast

Completely hollow parts are not normally constructed as these are very fragile in the
green state and deform with handling.
ACES
➢ When using ACES, the
interior of the part is
almost wholly cured by
the laser (Figure 5).
➢ This is achieved by
applying a hatch-spacing
which is equivalent to half
the line-width.

➢ This spacing is chosen so that all the solidified resin receives the same cumulative UV exposure
and hence the downward facing surfaces are flat.
➢ This style may only be used with epoxy resins that do not shrink much when polymerised
otherwise the connected lines would cause warping in the prototype.
➢ It is the most accurate of the three build styles for low-distortion resins and is employed when
making high precision parts although the drawing time is the longest of the three styles [3D
Systems, 1996; Jacobs, 1996].
STARWEAVE
➢ STARWEAVETM provides stability to a solid part by hatching the interior with a
series of grids which are offset by half of the hatch spacing every other layer (Figure
6).
➢ The grids are drawn such that the ends are not attached to the part border to reduce the
overall distortion. Also to keep the distortion low, the grid-lines do not touch one
another.

Figure 6 STARWEAVE build

style: (a) One layer of STAR
WE A VETM. This is composed
of a cross-hatched grid which is
detached from the part border;
(b) Alternate layers of
STARWEAVE are offset by half
the hatch-spacing
➢ However, they are located as close together as possible to improve the green strength of the part.
This build style should be employed with acrylic resins which shrink when polymerised.
➢ It is sometimes used with epoxy resins in preference to ACESTM because the draw time is lower.
➢ In this, the scanning lines are parallel to the x- and y-axis, the spacing being about 0.28 mm
when the layer thickness is about 0.25 mm.
➢ When the layer thickness is 0.127 mm, the spacing is made to be 0.229 mm. In the Tri-Hatch
system too much (« 50%) liquid material remains trapped and this leads to considerable post
curing distortion.
➢ Attempts to reduce the fraction of trapped volume in the Tri-Hatch system by reducing the hatch
spacing lead to increased curl distortion.
➢ With the STARWEAVE system, a reduction of the fraction of trapped residual volume without
resulting in large curl distortion is possible.
➢ It is obvious that the outer surfaces of the generated solid cannot end up being porous. Thus,
skins are created by skin fills which consist of closely spaced scan lines.
➢ The spacing between the scan lines is in the range 0.0762 mm to 0.127 mm. The skin fills are
scanned after the borders and internal hatch.
➢ However, with the introduction of WEAVE the importance of skin fill has been greatly reduced
since very little residual liquid remains trapped inside
QuickCast
➢ QuickCast is usually adopted when the prototype is to serve as a pattern for investment
casting as it produces almost hollow parts.
➢ The outline of the layer is drawn before the interior is hatched. Either squares (QuickCast
version 1.1) or equilateral triangles (QuickCast version 1.0) are used to fill the part and
these are offset after a specified vertical build distance to facilitate resin drainage.
➢ The triangles are offset such that the vertices of one section are above the centroids of the
triangles in the previous section (Figure 7).
➢ The squares are offset by half of the
hatch spacing. Since squares have
larger interior angles than triangles, the
meniscus of resin will be smaller so
better drainage is achieved [3D
Systems, 1996; Jacobs, 1996].

Figure 7: Tri-Hatch pattern

➢ Horizontal sections that form the outer surface of the part are completely solidified and are
referred to as skinfill areas.
➢ Three layers are drawn with skinfill areas corresponding to the part surface to avoid the
formation of 'pinholes' when the supports are removed and to prevent the upwards-facing
horizontal surfaces from sagging [Jacobs, 1995; Jacobs, 1996].
➢ These skin fills support the surface which means that the hatch spacing may be larger. It also
means that a smaller percentage of the prototype is solid [Jacobs, 1996].
➢ Vents and drains must be designed into these areas to allow the excess resin to bleed from the
part.
➢ These parts will collapse quickly upon firing so that little stress is developed on the ceramic
investment shell, thus preventing it from being damaged.
➢ Because QuickCast parts have a large surface area and the resin is hygroscopic, they should
be used as quickly as possible or stored in an area with controlled humidity to prevent later
distortion from water absorption.
➢ The pattern may consist of parallel lines making 0°, 60° and 120° with the x-axis resulting in
an internal structure which consists of equilateral triangles as indicated in Figure 5. The
spacing between the consecutive lines is about 0.625 mm, and this common hatching pattern
is called Tri-Hatch.
Support Structure
➢ While slicing the CAD model into
layers isolated islands may be
produced as shown in Figure 6.
➢ The sectional view in plane 1-1
shows an isolated island which
belongs to a projection from the
main object.
➢ The connection of the projection to
the parent body is from the top and
while generating the shape by a
GMP it will be built later. Figure 6: Formation of isolated islands

➢ Thus it becomes essential to design a support for the isolated islands to prevent their fall
under gravity, as they are created if the process is liquid-based like Stereolithography.
➢ When the whole object is formed the extra supports are removed. Due to similar
reasons, supports are essential for long cantilevered projections also.
➢ Though isolated islands are not formed, the thickness of the projection may be too
thin to support the weight of the cantilever.
➢ Thus, supports in a GMP system are analogous to job holding devices for
conventional machining.
➢ In addition to preventing the fall of isolated islands, supports are generally provided
to hold the main part body also.
➢ In future suitable materials for GMP may be developed to eliminate the need of
supporting the main object.
➢ At present supports are essential to hold the material during operation even if the
component is devoid of cantilevers and projections.
Figure 7 shows different types of supports.

Ceiling
Gussets

Island GCEK, BHAWANIPATNA

Programming in RP modelling
The main purpose of the STL file format is to encode the surface geometry of a 3D
object. It encodes this information using a simple concept called “tessellation”.

Tessellation
Tessellation is the process of tiling a surface with one or more geometric shapes such
that there are no overlaps or gaps.
➢ The basic idea was to tessellate the two-dimensional outer surface of 3D models using
tiny triangles (also called “facets”) and store information about the facets in a file.

➢ For example, if you have a simple 3D cube, this can be covered by 12 triangles, as
shown in the image below. As you can see, there are two triangles per face. Since the
cube has six faces, it adds up to 12 triangles.

➢ If you have a 3D model of a sphere, then it can be covered by many small triangles, also
shown in the same image.
The STL specification has some special rules for tessellation and for storing
information.
❖Vertex Rule
The vertex rule states that each triangle must share two vertices with its
neighboring triangles.

▪ This rule is to be respected when

tessellating the surface of the 3D
object.

Left Right

Here’s an example of a valid and invalid tessellation, according to this rule. The figure on
the left violates this rule and is an invalid tessellation, while the figure on the right is
conformant and a valid tessellation
❖Orientation Rule
The orientation rule says that the orientation of the facet (i.e. which way is “in” the 3D
object and which way is “out”) must be specified in two ways

• First, the direction of the normal should point outwards. Second, the vertices are listed
in counterclockwise order when looking at the object from the outside (right-hand
rule).

▪ This redundancy exists for a reason. It

helps ensure consistency of the data and
spot corrupt data.
▪ A software can, for example, calculate the
orientation from the normal and
subsequently from the vertices and verify
whether they match. If it doesn’t, then it
can declare the STL file to be corrupt!
❖The all positive octant rule
The all positive octant rule says that the coordinates of the triangle vertices must all be
positive.

This implies that the 3D object lives in the all-positive octant of the 3D Cartesian
coordinate system (and hence the name).

❖Triangle sorting rule

The triangle sorting rule recommends that the triangles appear in ascending z-value order.

This helps slicing software to slice the 3D models faster. This rule is not strictly enforced.
➢ Binary
➢ ASCII
➢ ASCII STL
An ASCII STL file begins with the line
solid <name>
where <name> is the name of the 3D model. This field can be left blank, but there must be a space
after the word “solid” in that case.
The file continues with information about the covering triangles. Information about the vertices and the
normal vector is represented as: facet normal n n n
x y z
outer loop
vertex v1x v1y v1z
vertex v2x v2y v2z
vertex v3x v3y v3z
endloop
endfacet
Here, n is the normal of the triangle, and v1, v2, and v3 are the triangle’s vertices. Coordinate values are
represented as a floating-point number with the sign-mantissa-esign-exponent format – for example,
“3.245000e-002”.
The file ends with the mandatory line
endsolid <name>
Binary STL file
▪ If the tessellation involves many small triangles, the ASCII STL file can become huge. This is why the
more compact binary STL format exists.

▪ The binary STL file starts with an 80 character header. This is generally ignored by most STL file
readers, with some notable exceptions that we will talk about later. After the header, the total number
of triangles is indicated using a 4-byte unsigned integer.

UINT8[80] – Header
UINT32 – Number of triangles

▪ The information about the triangles follows. The file ends after the last triangle.

▪ Twelve 32-bit floating-point numbers represent each triangle. Like the ASCII STL file, three numbers
are for the 3D Cartesian coordinates of the triangle’s normal to the triangle. The remaining nine
numbers are for the coordinates of the vertices (three each). Here’s how this looks:
 for each triangle
REAL32[3] – Normal vector
REAL32[3] – Vertex 1
REAL32[3] – Vertex 2
REAL32[3] – Vertex 3
UINT16 – Attribute byte count
end

▪ Note that after each triangle, there is a 2-byte sequence called the “attribute byte count”. In most
cases, this is set to zero and acts as a spacer between two triangles. But some software will use
these 2 bytes to encode additional information about the triangle.
Overview of solid view in rapid prototyping
❖ SolidView/Pro RP is the most robust of the SolidView family of products and is
designed for companies doing their own rapid prototyping work.

❖ SolidView/Pro RP offers all SolidView/Pro features as well as advanced rapid

prototyping tools; compound cutting, file repair, z-correction, shelling, offset, and
automatic or manual object layout.

❖ Optional CAD formats and network licenses are also available for SolidView/Pro RP.

❖ Just about anywhere you see a 2D engineering drawing, you can use the SolidView
family of products instead.

❖ By giving everyone involved in the product development and support process a 3D

view they can move, scale, rotate and measure, you increase their understanding of the
data and improve their productivity.
The advantages of SolidView over 2D drawings include:
➢ Users can view and measure the 3D data.

➢ Valuable engineering time is not wasted on creating 2D drawings

➢ Users can directly view up-to-date CAD data instead of outdated 2D drawings

➢ Complex designs and assemblies can be viewed on a low-cost PC, saving plotting
paper and supplies and reducing the security risk of drawing disposal
Materialise Magics
➢ Materialise Magics is a smart, versatile data preparation software for additive
manufacturing equipped with a customizable, intuitive user interface.
➢ This industry leading software efficiently guides you through every step of your 3D
printing workflow.
➢ Materialise Magics is a technology-neutral modular solution.
➢ Whether you want to generate support for your metal or resin parts, or nest multiple
parts on your laser sintering machine, Magics offers all the modules you need to print
parts with the highest efficiency.
➢ It allows you to view slices, detect collisions, save platforms, and generate useful
reports.
Why choose Materialise Magics?
•Prepare build platforms faster
•Reduce lead times
•Save material
•Get every part printed right the first time

Prepare parts with Materialise Magics

•Import all data types and formats
•Repair and prepare files for all technologies
•Edit and enhance data
•Prepare build platforms
•Rely on reports and measurements for quality
control
•Perform simulations
Advantages
❖ Spend Your Time Wisely
This extensive and user-friendly toolbox will help you to save time on data
preparation, printing and finishing, thereby significantly reducing the lead time of
your projects.

❖ Maximize Your Success Rate

Smart data preparation leads to less material usage and a higher amount of
successfully printed parts. Reduce your data preparation costs today.
.
❖ Access the Industry Standard
Materialise Magics is the top data preparation software choice for companies and
industries worldwide. Tap into our decades of 3D printing software expertise.

❖ Rely on Independent Software

No matter what combination of printers you have, with Materialise Magics, you and
your team only need to adopt one software to prepare parts for 3D Printing.
Mimics
▪ Mimics is a medical 3D image-based engineering software that efficiently takes you
from image to 3D model and allows you to scale from R&D to high-volume clinical
operation.
▪ Mimics is software specially developed by Materialise for medical image processing.
▪ Use Mimics for the segmentation of 3D medical images (coming from CT, MRI,
microCT, CBCT, Ultrasound, Confocal Microscopy) and the result will be highly
accurate 3D models of your patient’s anatomy.
▪ You can then use these patient-specific models for a variety of engineering
applications directly in Mimics or 3-matic, or export the 3D models and anatomical
landmark points to 3rd party software, like statistical, CAD, or FEA packages.
Use Mimics to:
• Easily and quickly create accurate 3D models from imaging data
• Accurately measure in 2D and 3D
• Export 3D models in STL format for additive manufacturing
• Export 3D models to 3-matic to optimize the mesh for FEA or CFD

Main Features:
• Import DICOM, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, or Raw image data
Magic Communicator
➢ Magics rapid prototyping software enables you to import a wide variety of CAD
formats and to export STL files ready for rapid prototyping, tooling and manufacturing.

➢ Its applications include:

▪ Repairing and optimizing 3D models.
▪ Analyzing parts; making process-related
design changes on your STL files.
▪ Designing fixtures.
▪ Documenting your projects.
▪ Production planning.
Main Features of Magic Communicator

➢ Visualise
View STL, IGES*, VDA* and DXF 3d faces*, with fast rotation, zooming and
cross sectioning.

➢ Annotate
Add 2D and 3D annotations, shapes, text and bitmaps.

➢ Measure
Easily create 2D drawings from 3D files. Extensive feature recognition allows
measuring of distances, radii and angles in 3D. Add tolerances and additional info.

➢ Present
Make a 3D slide show with adjustable colours, shading and transparency.
Internet based software
➢ A web-based rapid prototyping and manufacturing (RP&M) system offers a
collaborative production environment among users and RP&M providers to implement
the remote service and manufacturing for rapid prototyping.

➢ To enhance the availability of RP&M facilities, and to improve the capability of rapid
product development.

➢ Web-based RP&M systems from both the academic community and industrial bodies all
over the world. A number of studies have been performed to explore the architecture,
key issues and enabling tools for developing web-based RP&M systems.
Various Architectures for Web-based RP&M Systems
➢ A variety of frameworks for developing web-based RP&M systems have been
proposed.

➢ The Tele-Manufacturing Facility (TMF) is probably the first system that provides users
with direct access to a rapid prototyping facility over the Internet.

➢ TMF allows users to easily submit jobs and have the system automatically maintain a
queue. It can also automatically check many flaws in .STL (Stereolithography) files,
and in many cases, fix them.

➢ A laminated object manufacturing (LOM) machine was first connected with network,
and then the .STL file of a part to be built could be submitted to this machine via a
command-line.