Rapid Prototyping

(1) Introduction
One of the important steps prior to the production of a functional product is building of a
physical prototype. Prototype is a working model created in order to test various aspects
of a design, illustrate ideas or features and gather early user feed-back. Traditional
prototyping is typically done in a machine shop where most of parts are machined on
lathes and mills. This is a subtractive process, beginning with a solid piece of stock and
the machinist carefully removes the material until the desired geometry is achieved. For
complex part geometries, this is an exhaustive, time consuming, and expensive
process. A host of new shaping techniques, usually put under the title Rapid
Prototyping, are being developed as an alternative to subtractive processes. These
methods are unique in that they add and bond materials in layers to form objects. These
systems are also known by the names additive fabrication, three dimensional
printing, solid freeform fabrication (SFF), layered manufacturing etc. These
additive technologies offer significant advantages in many applications compared to
classical subtractive fabrication methods like formation of an object with any geometric
complexity or intricacy without the need for elaborate machine setup or final assembly in
very short time. This has resulted in their wide use by engineers as a way to reduce
time to market in manufacturing, to better understand and communicate product
designs, and to make rapid tooling to manufacture those products. Surgeons, architects,
artists and individuals from many other disciplines also routinely use this technology.

(2) Methodology of Rapid Prototyping (RP)

RP in its basic form can be described as the production of three dimensional (3D) parts
from computer aided design (CAD) data in a decreased time scale. The basic
methodology of all RP process can be summarized as shown in following figure.

Figure 38.1 Rapid prototyping process chain

(2.1) Development of a CAD model
The process begins with the generation CAD model of the desired object which can be
done by one of the following ways;

• Conversion of an existing two dimensional (2D) drawing

• Importing scanned point data into a CAD package
• Creating a new part in CAD in various solid modeling packages
• Altering an existing CAD model

RP has traditionally been associated with solid rather than surface modelling but the
more recent trends for organic shapes in product design is increasing the need for free
flowing surfaces generated better in surface modelling.

(2.2) Generation of Standard triangulation language (STL) file

The developed 3D CAD model is tessellated and converted into STL files that are
required for RP processes. Tessellation is piecewise approximation of surfaces of 3D
CAD model using series of triangles. Size of triangles depends on the chordal error or
maximum fact deviation. For better approximation of surface and smaller chordal error,
small size triangle are used which increase the STL file size. This tessellated CAD data
generally carry defects like gaps, overlaps, degenerate facets etc which may necessitate
the repair software. These defects are shown in figure below. The STL file connects the
surface of the model in an array of triangles and consists of the X, Y and Z coordinates
of the three vertices of each surface triangle, as well as an index that describes the
orientation of the surface normal.

Figure 38.2 Tessellation defects

(2.3) Slicing the STL file

Slicing is defined as the creating contours of sections of the geometry at various heights
in the multiples of layer thickness. Once the STL file has been generated from the
original CAD data the next step is to slice the object to create a slice file (SLI). This
necessitates the decision regarding part deposition orientation and then the tessellated
model is sliced. Part orientation will be showing considerable effect on the surface as
shown in the figures.

Figure 38.3 Effect of Part deposition Orientation

The thickness of slices is governed by layer thickness that the machine will be building
in, the thicker the layer the larger the steps on the surface of the model when it has
been built. After the STL file has been sliced to create the SLI files they are merged
into a final build file. This information is saved in standard formats like SLC or CLI
(Common Layer Interface) etc.

2.4) Support Structures

As the parts are going to be built in layers, and there may be areas that could float
away or of overhang which could distort. Therefore, some processes require a base
and support structures to be added to the file which are built as part of the model and
later removed.

(2.5) Manufacturing

As discussed previously, the RP process is additive i.e. it builds the parts up in layers
of material from the bottom. Each layer is automatically bonded to the layer below and
the process is repeated until the part is built. This process of bonding is undertaken in
different ways for the various materials that are being used but includes the use of
Ultraviolet (UV) lasers, Carbon Dioxide lasers, heat sensitive glues and melting
the material itself etc.

(2.6) Post processing

The parts are removed from the machine and post processing operations are
performed sometimes to add extra strength to the part by filling process voids or finish
the curing of a part or to hand finish the parts to the desired level. The level of post
processing will depend greatly on the final requirements of the parts produced, for
example, metal tooling for injection molding will require extensive finishing to eject the
parts but a prototype part manufactured to see if it will physically fit in a space will
require little or no post processing.

(3) Various RP Processes

Several RP techniques are being developed and commercially available. The first
commercial process, StereoLithography (SL), came to the market in 1987. Nowadays,
more than 30 different processes (not all commercialized) with high accuracy and a large
choice of materials exist. These processes can be classified in different ways but the
most popular way is according to the form of material used as an input. This can be
given as follows.

Liquid based processes

(i) Solidification of a liquid polymer.

(ii) Solidification of an electro-stat fluid.
(iii)Solidification of molten material.

Discrete Particle based processes

(i) Fusing of particles by laser

(ii) Joining particles by binder

Sheets based process

(i) Bonding of sheets with adhesive

(ii) Bonding of sheets with light

Some of the commercially popular RP processes are described below;

(3.1) Stereolithograpy

StereoLithography (SL) is the best known rapid prototyping system. The technique
builds three-dimensional models from liquid photosensitive polymers that solidify when
exposed to laser beam. The model is built upon a platform in a vat of photo sensitive
liquid. A focused UV laser traces out the first layer, solidifying the model cross section
while leaving excess areas liquid. In the next step, an elevator lowers the platform into
the liquid polymer by an amount equal to layer thickness. A sweeper recoats the
solidified layer with liquid, and the laser traces the second layer on the first. This
process is repeated until the prototype is complete. Afterwards, the solid part is
removed from the vat and rinsed clean of excess liquid. Supports are broken off and the
model is then placed in an ultraviolet oven for complete curing.

Figure 38.5 Stereolithography

Application Range

• Processing large variety of photo-sensitive polymers including clear, water resistant

and flexible resins
• Functional parts for tests
• Tools for pre series production tests.
• Manufacturing of medical models
• Manufacturing of electro-forms for Electro Discharge Machining (EDM)

• Form-fit functions for assembly tests.

Advantages

• Possibility of manufacturing parts which are impossible to produce conventionally

using a single process.
• Continuous unattended operation for 24 hours.
• High resolution.

• Any geometrical shape can be made with virtually no limitation.

Disadvantages

• Necessity to have support structures

• Accuracy not in the range of mechanical part manufacturing.
• Restricted areas of application due to given material properties.

• Labour requirements for post processing, especially cleaning.

(3.3) Laminated Object manufacturing (LOM)

In this technique, layers of adhesive-coated sheet material are bonded together to form
a prototype. The original material consists of paper laminated with heat-activated glue
and rolled up on spools. A feeder/collector mechanism advances the sheet over the
build platform, where a base has been constructed from paper and double-sided foam
tape. In the next stage, a heated roller applies pressure to bond the paper to the base.
A focused laser cuts the outline of the first layer into the paper and then cross-hatches
the excess area (the negative space in the prototype). Cross-hatching breaks up the
extra material, making it easier to remove during post-processing. During the build, the
excess material provides excellent support for overhangs and thin-walled sections. After
the first layer is cut, the platform lowers out of the way and fresh material is advanced.
The platform rises slightly below the previous height, the roller bonds the second layer
to the first, and the laser cuts the second layer. This process is repeated as needed to
build the part, which will have a wood-like texture. Because the models are made of
paper, they must be sealed and finished with paint or varnish to prevent moisture
damage.
 Figure 38.7 Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM)

Application Range

• Considering the specified of the procedure, the main application range is the
working area of conceptual design.

• Used for large bulky models as sand casting patterns.

Advantages

• Variety of organic and inorganic materials can be used such as paper, plastic,
ceramic, composite, etc.
Relatively low costs
• Much faster process than competitive techniques
• Virtually produces no internal stress and associated undesirable deformation.
• Robust capacity of dealing with imperfect STL files, created with discontinuities,

• Best suited for building large parts, as if the machine with the largest workspace
on the market today.

Disadvantages

• Limited stability of the objects due to the bonding strength of the glued layers.
• Not well suited for manufacturing parts with thin walls in the z-direction

• Hollow parts, like bottles, can not be built.

(3.4) Fusion Deposition Modeling (FDM)

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) machine is basically a CNC-controlled robot carrying

a miniature extruder head. By feeding the head with a plastic wire, solid objects are built
"string by string". In this technique, filaments of heated thermoplastic are extruded from
a tip that moves in the x-y plane. Like a baker decorating a cake, the controlled
extrusion head deposits very thin beads of material onto the build platform to form the
first layer. The platform is maintained at a lower temperature, so that the thermoplastic
quickly hardens. After the platform lowers, the extrusion head deposits a second layer
upon the first. Supports are built along the way, fastened to the part either with a
second, weaker material or with a perforated junction.

Figure 38.8 Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)

Application Range

• Conceptual modeling.
• Fit, form and functional applications and models for further manufacturing
procedures.

• Investment casting and injection molding.

Advantages

• Quick and cheap generation of models.

• Easy and convenient date building.
• No worry of possible exposure to toxic chemicals, lasers, or a liquid polymer
bath.
• No wastage of material during or after producing the model
• No requirement of clean-up.

• Quick change of materials

Disadvantages

• Restricted accuracy due to the shape of the material used: wire of 1.27 mm
diameter.
(3.5) Solid Ground Curing

Solid ground curing (SGC) is almost similar to stereolithography (SLA). In both one
uses ultraviolet light to selectively harden photosensitive polymers. Unlike SLA, SGC
cures an entire layer at a time. First, photosensitive resin is sprayed on the build
platform. Secondly, the machine develops a photomask (like a stencil) of the layer to
be built. This photomask is printed on a glass plate above the build platform using an
electrostatic process similar to that found in photocopiers. The mask is then exposed
to UV light, which only passes through the transparent portions of the mask to
selectively harden the shape of the current layer. After the layer is cured, the machine
vacuums up the excess liquid resin and sprays wax in its place to support the model
during the build. The top surface is milled flat, and then the process repeats to build
the next layer. When the part is complete, it must be de-waxed by immersing it in a
solvent bath.

Figure 38.9 Solid Ground Curing (SGC)

Advantages

• Large parts, 500 × 500 × 350 mm, can be fabricated quickly.

• High speed allows production-like fabrication of many parts or large parts.
• Masks are created with laser printing-like process, then full layer exposed at
once.
• No post-cure required.
• Milling step ensures flatness for subsequent layer.

• Wax supports model: no extra supports needed.

Disadvantages
 • Creates a lot of waste.

• Not as prevalent as SLA and SLS, but gaining ground because of the high
throughput and large parts

(3.6) 3D Printing

3D printing is very reminiscent of SLS, except that the laser is replaced by an inkjet
head. The multi-channel jetting head (A) deposits a liquid adhesive compound onto the
top layer of a bed of powder object material (B). The particles of the powder become
bonded in the areas where the adhesive is deposited.

Once a layer is completed the piston (C) moves down by the thickness of a layer. As in
SLS, the powder supply system (E) is similar in function to the build cylinder In this
case the piston moves upward incrementally to supply powder for the process and the
roller (D) spreads and compresses the powder on the top of the build cylinder. The
process is repeated until the entire object is completed within the powder bed.

After completion the object is elevated and the extra powder brushed away leaving a
"green" object. Parts must usually be infiltrated with a hardener before they can be
handled without much risk of damage.

Figure 38.10 3D Printing

Surfaces of the parts produced by layer manufacturing processes suffer from poor
surface finish and this is due to the inherent characteristics of the process itself like
stair stepping effect, shrinkage etc. Least build time in RP is generally preferred but
stair stepping effect and poor surface finish restricts it. This has been induced on to the
surface of the parts during the various stages that a particular part has to come across
during a RP cycle, typically data preparation stage, part orientation, part geometry,
deciding layer thickness etc. Figure 38.4 shows these effects on RP product.

4) Some issues in RP

Because of layer by layer deposition of the material and due to the finite thickness of
each layer, situation similar to stair case will be resulting on the surface and this effect is
known as stair stepping effect. From the figures it can be seen that layer thickness will
directly affect the maximum cusp height attained and the stair case effect on the
surface.

Figure 38.11 Staircase effect in RP Parts

Figure 38.12 Effect of layer thickness on stair stepping effect

To reduce the surface roughness, one may go with very fine layers, but this will be
increasing the overall build time and build cost considerably. If we choose maximum
allowable layer thickness then, this will be generating a part with high surface
roughness. So an optimum layer thickness must be decided. The solution for this is to
go for adaptive slicing or local adaptive slicing.
Adaptive slicing is slicing the entire part with different thicknesses according to the local
surface geometry and maximum cusp height that can be reached as shown in the figure
above. In local adaptive slicing, maximum layer thickness will be considered and then
checked for maximum slice thickness and each layer is further divided accordingly if
required.

Reverse Engineering
Reverse EngineeringReve

(1) Introduction

Engineering is the profession involved in designing, manufacturing, and maintaining

products, systems, and structures. The whole engineering process can be broadly
classified in two groups; forward engineering and reverse engineering.

Forward engineering is the traditional process of moving from high-level abstractions

and logical designs to the physical implementation of a system.

Figure 37.1 Forward Engineering

The process of duplicating an existing component, subassembly, or product, without the

aid of drawings, documentation, or computer model is known as reverse engineering.
 Figure 37.2 Reverse Engineering

Reverse engineering can be mainly viewed as the process of analyzing a system to

identify its components and their interrelationships, to create representations of it in
another form or a higher level of abstraction. An important reason for application of
reverse engineering is reduction of product development times. In the intensely
competitive global market, manufacturers are constantly seeking new ways to shorten
lead-times to market a new product. For example, injection-molding companies must
drastically reduce the tool and die development times. By using reverse engineering, a
three-dimensional product or model can be quickly captured in digital form, re-modeled,
and exported for rapid prototyping/tooling or rapid manufacturing.

Some of the important reasons for the for reverse engineering of a product or part
are;

• The original manufacturer of a product no longer produces a product

• There is inadequate documentation of the original design
• The original manufacturer no longer exists, but a customer needs the product
• The original design documentation has been lost or never existed
• Some bad features of a product need to be designed out. For example, excessive
wear might indicate where a product should be improved
• To strengthen the good features of a product based on long-term usage of the
product
• To analyze the good and bad features of competitors' product
• To explore new avenues to improve product performance and features
• To gain competitive benchmarking methods to understand competitor's products and
develop better products
• The original CAD model is not sufficient to support modifications or current
manufacturing methods

• To update obsolete materials or antiquated manufacturing processes with more

current, less-expensive technologies

It can be said that reverse engineering begins with the product and works through the
design process in the opposite direction to arrive at a product definition statement. In
doing so, it uncovers as much information as possible about the design ideas that were
used to produce a particular product

2) Reverse engineering methodology

The reverse engineering process can be divided into the following broad steps:
 Figure 37.3 Reverse Engineering Methodology

(2.1) Digitizing or collecting data from physical part

One of the reverse engineering methods is construction of a CAD model of the physical
parts whose drawing is not available. This is done by digitizing an existing prototype
which is mainly creating a computer model and then using it to manufacture the
component. The objective of this method is to generate a 3D mapping of the product in
form of a CAD file. This involves the acquisition of the product surface data by either
contact or non contact methods in form of X, Y and Z coordinates of large number of
points on the product surface. The methods of obtaining the product surface data can be
divided into two broad categories; Contact method and Non-contact method. The
contact method requires contact between the component surface and a measuring tool
that is usually a probe or a stylus. The non-contact method uses light as the main tool in
extracting the required information. The contact discretization method uses Co-ordinate
Measuring Machines (CMM) or electromagnetic digitizers or sonic digitizers to get the
co-ordinates of the desired points on the surface. The non-contact discretization
technique uses white light or laser scanners to scan the 3D object from which the CAD
model is generated. The choice of discretization method is based on the speed and
performance during digitization and avoidance of damage to the product.

A CMM is a 3-dimensional measuring device that uses a contact probe to detect the
surface of the object. The linear distances moved along the 3 axes are recorded, thus
providing the X, Y and Z co-ordinates of the point. The part to be discretized is placed on
the measuring table, and the co-ordinates of a number of points on the surface of the
object are then read. These points are input into a 'geometry data' file, which can be
transferred to a CAD system to generate the model of the part. In this way the shape of
the object is captured in the form of a CAD drawing that can be manipulated and
modified as needed.
In electromagnetic digitizers, the product to be digitized is placed on a table which
encloses electronic equipment and a magnetic field source. It creates a magnetic field in
the volume of space above table. A hand held stylus is used to trace the surface of the
part. This stylus houses a magnetic field sensor that, in conjunction with the electronic
unit, detects the position and orientation of the stylus. The data can be transferred to a
computer through a serial port.

In sonic digitizers, sound waves are used to calculate the position of a point relative to a
reference point. In this technique, the object is placed in front of a vertical rectangular
board on the corners of which are mounted four microphone sensors. A free hand held
stylus is used to trace the contours of the object. When a foot or a hand switch is
pressed, the stylus emits an ultrasonic impulse, and, simultaneously four clocks are
activated. When the impulse is detected by a microphone, the corresponding clock is
stopped and the times taken to reach each of the microphones recorded. These time
recordings, called slant ranges, are processed by a computer to calculate the x, y and z
coordinates of the point.

(2.2) Manipulation of the collected data to obtain a CAD model

After obtaining the product surface data as a sea of points in space, the next important
step is the fitting of geometry to this point data. Various methods were developed for the
fitting of surfaces to the point data. The surface can be mathematically described as
either algebraic or parametric surfaces. Algebraic surfaces are represented by a
polynomial equation of the type f(x, y, z) = 0, and usually represent infinite surfaces.
Parametric surfaces on the other hand, are finite surfaces defined by certain basis
functions and control points e.g. Beizer surfaces, NURBS surfaces. Surface fitting
techniques can be broadly classified in to two categories; interpolation techniques and
approximation techniques. In interpolation technique, the surface to be fitted passes
through all the data points and is normally used when the data points are accurately
measured without any errors. In approximation technique, the surface need not to pass
through any of the data points, but represents a generalized average or a best fit to the
data points. This is usually used when there are a large number of data points through
which the surface has to be fitted, or when there errors in the measurement are to be
averaged out.
(2.3) Generation of functional parts from CAD model

Once the geometric model is obtained, it can be used as the basis for a variety of
operations such as automated process planning, automated manufacturing, automated
dimensional inspection and automated tolerance analysis. In automated manufacturing,
these geometric models can be used to generate the tool motion commands which can
be made execute on any of the standard CNC machines or input CAD model for rapid
prototyping processes. These applications require feature extraction from the geometric
model, followed by a process plan for the object, which involves definition of various
manufacturing sequences required to manufacture the object.

Reverse Engineering of a computer mouse

Step 1: Point Cloud Data in Sub Regions

Step 2: Point Cloud Data after applying Maximum Error Method

Step 3: Surface fitting to Point Cloud Data

 Step 4: Surface after Cleaning

Step 5: Computer mouse after Prototyping