ADDITIVE

MANUFACTURING
TECHNOLOGY
UNIT-II
INTRODUCTION
CONTENTS
■ PROTOTYPING FUNDAMENTALS AND HISTORIC
DEVELOPMENTS
■ FUNDAMENTALS OF RAPID PROTOTYPING
■ ADVANTAGES , LIMITATIONS OF RAPID PROTOTYPING
■ CLASSIFICATION OF RP
■ RAPID PROTOTYPING PROCESS CHAIN
■ FUNDAMENTAL AUTOMATED PROCESSES
PROTOTYPING FUNDAMENTALS AND HISTORIC
DEVELOPMENTS
■ The competition in the world market for manufactured products has intensified
tremendously in recent years.
■  It has become important, if not vital, for new products to reach the market as early as
possible, before the competitors
■ The efficient use of such valuable resources calls for new tools and approaches in
dealing with them, and many of these tools and approaches have evolved.
■  They are mainly technology-driven, usually involving the computer. 
■ This is mainly a result of the rapid development and advancement in such technologies
over the last few decades.
■ In product development , time pressure has been a major factor in determining the
direction of the development and success of new methodologies and technologies for
enhancing its performance. 
■ These also have a direct impact on the age-old practice of prototyping in the product
development process.
■ A prototype is an important and vital part of the product development process.
In any design practice, the word “prototype” is often not far from the things
that the designers will be involved

■ A prototype is the first or original example of something that has been or will
be copied or developed; it is a model or preliminary version
■ To be general enough to be able to cover all aspects of the meaning of the word
prototype for use in design, it is very loosely defined here as:
"An approximation of a product (or system) or its components in some form for a
definite purpose in its implementation."
■ Prototyping is the process of realizing these prototypes. Here, the process can
range from just an execution of a computer program to the actual building of a
functional prototype.
TYPES OF PROTOTYPES

■ The general definition of the prototype contains three aspects of interests:

(1) The implementation of the prototype; from the entire product (or system) itself
to its sub-assemblies and components,

(2) The form of the prototype; from a virtual prototype to a physical prototype, and
A prototype is the first or original example of something that has been or will be
copied or developed; it is a model or preliminary version

(3) The degree of the approximation of the prototype; from a very rough

representation to an exact replication of the product.
• Figure  shows the various kinds of prototypes
placed over the three aspects of describing the
prototype. Each of the three axes represents one
aspect of the description of the prototype

• Rapid prototyping typically falls in the range of a

physical prototype, usually are fairly accurate and
can be implemented on a component level or at a
system level. This is shown as the shaded volume
shown in Figure .

• The versatility and range of different prototypes,

from complete systems to individual components,
that can be produced by RP at varying degrees of
approximation makes it an important tool for
prototyping in the product development process

• Adding the major advantage of speed in delivery,

it has become an important component in the
prototyping arsenal not to be ignored
 Roles of the Prototypes

■The roles that prototypes play in the product development process are several.
They include the following:

(1) Experimentation and learning

(2) Testing and proofing

(3) Communication and interaction

(4) Synthesis and integration

(5) Scheduling and markers

Historic Development 
• The development of Rapid Prototyping is closely
tied in with the development of applications of
computers in the industry
• The increase in the use of computers has spurred
the advancement in many computer-related areas
including Computer-Aided Design (CAD),
Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) and
Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine
tools
• In particular, the emergence of RP systems could
not have been possible without the existence of
CAD.
• However, from careful examinations of the
numerous RP systems in existence today, it can
be easily deduced that other than CAD, many
other technologies and advancements in other
fields such as manufacturing systems and
materials have also been crucial in the
development of RP systems
Three Phases of Development Leading to Rapid Prototyping
■ Prototyping or model making in the traditional sense is an age-old practice. The
intention of having a physical prototype is to realize the conceptualization of a design.

■ Thus, a prototype is usually required before the start of the full production of the
product. The fabrication of prototypes is experimented in many forms — material
removal, castings, moulds, joining with adhesives etc. and with many material types
— aluminium, zinc, urethanes, wood, etc.

■ Prototyping processes have gone through three phases of development, the last two of
which have emerged only in the last 20 years . Like the modelling process in computer
graphics , the prototyping of physical models is growing through its third phase.
FUNDAMENTALS OF RAPID PROTOTYPING
Step-I

■A model or component is modelled on a Computer-Aided Design/ Computer-Aided

Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) system. The model which represents the physical part to be built
must be represented as closed surfaces which unambiguously define an enclosed volume. 

■This means that the data must specify the inside, outside and boundary of the model. This
requirement will become redundant if the modelling technique used is solid modelling. This
is by virtue of the technique used, as a valid solid model will automatically be an enclosed
volume. 

■This requirement ensures that all horizontal cross sections that are essential to RP are closed
curves to create the solid object.
FUNDAMENTALS OF RAPID PROTOTYPING
Step-II

■The solid or surface model to be built is next converted into a format dubbed the “STL”

(STereoLithography) file format which originates from 3D Systems. 

■The STL file format approximates the surfaces of the model by polygons. Highly curved

surfaces must employ many polygons, which means that STL files for curved parts can be

very large. 

■However, there are some rapid prototyping systems which also accept IGES (Initial

Graphics Exchange Specifications) data, provided it is of the correct “flavour”.

FUNDAMENTALS OF RAPID PROTOTYPING
Step-III

■A computer program analyzes a STL file that defines the model to be fabricated and

“slices” the model into cross sections. The cross sections are systematically recreated

through the solidification of either liquids or powders and then combined to form a

3D model.

■Another possibility is that the cross sections are already thin, solid laminations and

these thin laminations are glued together with adhesives to form a 3D model. Other

similar methods may also be employed to build the model

Fundamentally, the development of
RP can be seen in four
primary areas. The Rapid
Prototyping Wheel in Figure
 depicts these four key aspects of
Rapid Prototyping.
They are:
•Input, 
•Method, 
•Material
•and Applications.
ADVANTAGES OF RAPID PROTOTYPING
■ Today’s automated, toolless, pattern less RP systems can directly produce functional
parts in small production quantities.
■  Parts produced in this way usually have an accuracy and surface finish inferior to
those made by machining. 
■ However, some advanced systems are able to produce near tooling quality parts that are
close to or are the final shape. 
■ The parts produced, with appropriate post processing, will have material qualities and
properties close to the final product. 
■ More fundamentally, the time to produce any part — once the design data are available
— will be fast, and can be in a matter of hours.
■ The benefits of RP systems are immense and can be categorized into
1.Direct
2.Indirect benefits
COMMONLY USED TERMS
■ Worldwide, the most commonly used term is Rapid Prototyping. The term is apt as the
key benefit of RP is its rapid creation of a physical model. 
■ However, prototyping is slowly growing to include other areas. Soon, Rapid Prototyping,
Tooling and Manufacturing (RPTM) should be used to include the utilization of
the prototype as a master pattern for tooling and manufacturing
■ Some of the less commonly used terms include Direct CAD Manufacturing, Desktop
Manufacturing and Instant Manufacturing
■ CAD Oriented Manufacturing is another term and provides an insight into the issue of
orientation, often a key factor influencing the output of a prototype made by RP methods
like SLA
■ Another group of terms emphasizes on the unique characteristic of RP — layer by layer
addition as opposed to traditional manufacturing methods such as machining which is
material removal from a block. This group includes Layer Manufacturing, Material
Deposit Manufacturing, Material Addition Manufacturing and Material
Increases Manufacturing.
CLASSIFICATION OF RAPID PROTOTYPING SYSTEMS

■ While there are many ways in which one can classify the numerous RP systems
in the market, one of the better ways is to classify RP systems broadly by the
initial form of its material, i.e. the material that the prototype or part is built
with. In this manner, all RP systems can be easily categorized into 
(1) liquid-based
(2) solid-based and
(3) powder based.
 Liquid-Based

■Liquid-based RP systems have the initial form of its material in liquid state. Through a
process commonly known as curing, the liquid is converted into the solid state.
 Solid-Based

■Except for powder, solid-based RP systems are meant to encompass all forms of material in
the solid state. In this context, the solid form can include the shape in the form of a wire, a roll,
laminates and pellets
 Powder-Based

■In a strict sense, powder is by-and-large in the solid state. However, it is intentionally created
as a category outside the solid-based RP systems to mean powder in grain-like form
FUNDAMENTAL AUTOMATED PROCESSES
■ There are three fundamental fabrication processes 
They are
1.Subtractive
2.Additive and
3.Formative processes.
■ In the subtractive process, one starts with a single block of solid material larger than the
final size of the desired object and material is removed until the desired shape is reached.
■ In contrast, an additive process is the exact reverse in that the end product is much larger
than the material when it started. A material is manipulated so that successive portions of
it combine to form the desired object.
■ Lastly, the formative process is one where mechanical forces or restricting forms are
applied on a material so as to form it into the desired shape.
PROCESS CHAIN
■ As described  all RP techniques adopt the same basic approach. As such all RP systems generally
have a similar sort of process chain. 
■ There are a total of five steps in the chain and these are 
1. 3D modelling, 
2. Data conversion and
3. Transmission, 
4. Checking and preparing, 
5. Building and postprocessing. 
Depending on the quality of the model and part in Steps 3 and 5 respectively, the process may be
iterated until a satisfactory model or part is achieved