Accurate exterior, fast interior layered manufacturing

Abstract

Describes a new approach to fast layered manufacturing. The improvements in speed are achieved entirely through software control of existing commercial layered manufacturing equipment. In particular, the exterior regions of a part are built with thin layers to provide a precise, smooth exterior surface, while its interior regions are built with fast, thick layers to reduce overall build time. This approach has been implemented and tested with .STL CAD models on a Stratasys FDM 1600 rapid prototyping system, where a 50‐80 per cent reduction in build time of dense parts has been achieved without reducing surface quality or part integrity.

Citation

Sabourin, E., Houser, S.A. and Helge Bøhn, J. (1997), "Accurate exterior, fast interior layered manufacturing", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 44-52. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552549710176662