Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping
or layered manufacturing or layered manufacturing
As rapid prototyping or layered manufacturing is a process
in which a part is produced using layer-by-layer addition of
Slicing the material.
Creating contours of sections of the geometry at various
heights in the multiples of layer thickness In RP , slicing of the CAD model of a part to be produced is
one of the important steps.
Slicing of CAD model with a very small slice thickness
leads to large build time.
At the same time if large slice thickness is chosen, the
surface finish is very bad due to staircasing.
1 2
Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping
or layered manufacturing or layered manufacturing
These two contradicting issues namely reduction in build
time and better surface quality a major concern in laminated
manufacturing.
This contradiction led to the development of number of
slicing procedures. The slicing of the CAD model can be carried out either
directly on a solid or a surface model of the product or on a
The solid model of a component to be produced is created in tessellated model.
CAD environment and sliced before transferring the data to
the RP machine. In slicing, sets of horizontal planes are intersected with CAD
model.
The space between any two consecutive horizontal planes is
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referred to as a slice or slicing thickness. 4
Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping
or layered manufacturing or layered manufacturing
The tessellated representation of CAD data has a major Deposition of sliced layers leads to staircase effect.
limitation, as the intent of original design is lost because of
first order piece-wise approximation of the surface. The staircase effect cannot be eliminated on a RP part
completely.
The maximum deviation between an original surface of a
CAD model and a triangle of tessellated model is termed as Staircase effect
chordal error. in RP parts
There is no topological information related to the CAD model
left except the list of triangles and their normals
Even though tessellated CAD models have several advantages like
implementation of slicing algorithm is easier, ability of orientation of
model is better and addition of support structure is simpler. 5 6
Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping
or layered manufacturing or layered manufacturing
Due to the presence of stepped edges, slices may be In certain circumstances, the slice edges may be inside in
completely outside or inside the CAD model. certain portion of a CAD model and outside in the other
portion .
(Positive Tolerances) (Negative Tolerances) 7 8
Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping
or layered manufacturing or layered manufacturing
The slice edges inside in certain portion of a CAD model and Refinement of layers improves the surface finish of the part,
outside in the other portion . but it increases the build time.
This leads to the distortion of shape and is called containment The cost of the prototype is directly governed by the build
problem. time.
Therefore, one should fabricate the part in such a way that This contradiction between build time and surface finish led
either all edges are inside or outside the CAD model. to the development of different slicing algorithms.
These two cases are having their own importance as far as the
application of the prototype is concerned.
The problems of staircase and containment are of major concern for
engineers as they affect the final quality of the prototype. 9 10
Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping Slicing procedures in Rapid Prototyping
or layered manufacturing or layered manufacturing
Initially, uniform layer thickness used to slice the CAD Classification of slicing procedures
models.
Later adaptive slicing procedures which use slices of variable
thickness instead of constant thickness and their thickness is
governed by the part geometry and RP machine specifications.
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Adaptive Slicing procedures in Rapid Adaptive Slicing procedures in Rapid
Prototyping Prototyping
Most of the RP systems use fixed fabrication thickness for a component Slicing of tessellated CAD model
to be prototyped. In fact, some RP processes cannot handle variable In different adaptive slicing procedures, slice thickness is
thickness in the fabrication process.
decided based on the geometry of tessellated CAD model for a
One cannot change the thickness during the deposition operation in user specified maximum allowable cusp height or Ra value.
most of the commercial RP systems. The fabrication thickness is selected
at the stage of slicing of CAD model. The concept of maximum allowable cusp height, which is
accepted widely.
In a typical FDM system, the orientation is selected and the CAD Cusp height is not a standard parameter in design or
model is sliced for a constant slice thickness, which depends upon the
manufacturing practice to specify surface finish.
nozzle tip diameter.
To change the slice thickness, the nozzle tip needs to be changed. To Therefore, another concept of maximum allowable Ra value
have this facility, there is a need for the development of hardware, which is also recently introduced.
is able to deposit these variable slice thicknesses. 13 14
Adaptive Slicing procedures in Rapid
Prototyping Cusp Height Tolerance Concept
various slicing approaches.
Cusp Height Tolerance Concept Cusp height and staircase effect
Cusp height tolerance concept is introduced by Dolenc and
Makela (1994).
Additive Manufacturing parts and surfaces are inherently
subject to stair case effect which can be quantified by cusp
height.
Cusp height of a layer is the maximum distance measured
along a surface normal between the ideal surface and the
produced layer. 15 16
Cusp Height Tolerance Concept Cusp Height Tolerance Concept
The layer thickness, t at a point, P is computed based on the
cusp height c, within the user specified maximum allowable
cusp height, Cmax.
The thickness of the current layer is estimated using the
normals around the boundary of the preceding horizontal
plane. The normal at any point, P, is given by
Cusp height c
N = (Nx, Ny, Nz) (1)
and the corresponding cusp vector is given as
C = cN (2)
Where
(3)
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Cusp Height Tolerance Concept Cusp Height Tolerance Concept
The layer thickness t is obtained using the following Most RP processes have permissible layer thickness.
expression:
Where t or tp is the permissible layer thickness depending
on the RP processes, tmin is the minimum fabrication
layer thickness, tmax is the maximum fabrication layer
thickness.
tmin is one of the limits of the RP process. It decides the
minimum feature dimension that can be deposited or
fabricated in the vertical direction.
Optimizing the layer thickness in each block based on the
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allowable staircase tolerance. 20
Cusp Height Tolerance Concept Cusp Height Tolerance Concept
Some of the permissible layer thickness depending on the Thin layers for the skin or more curve regions and thick
RP processes layers for the kernel(central) regions depending on tmin and
tmax permissible layer thickness of the RP processes.
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Stepwise Uniform Refinement Concept Stepwise Uniform Refinement Concept
Most RP processes have permissible layer thickness. Adaptive slicing using stepwise uniform refinement,
proposed by Sabourin et al. (1996), uses the same concept
Where t or tp is the permissible layer thickness depending of limiting cusp height introduced by Dolenc and Makela
on the RP processes, tmin is the minimum fabrication (1994).
layer thickness, tmax is the maximum fabrication layer
thickness. Here, tessellated CAD model first divided into uniform,
tmin is one of the limits of the RP process. It decides the horizontal slabs of thickness equal to the maximum
minimum feature dimension that can be deposited or acceptable layer thickness, tmax.
fabricated in the vertical direction.
Those slabs that do not satisfy the cusp height
Optimizing the layer thickness in each block based on the requirement (c , Cmax) are further subdivided into finer
allowable staircase tolerance. 23
slabs having uniform thickness. 24
Stepwise Uniform Refinement Concept Stepwise Uniform Refinement Concept
Interpolation is used for slice thickness determination. The basic measure of slice thickness in this concept is the
Specifically, a slab was examined both from its bottom same as expression (4) i.e.
slice looking upward and from its top slice looking
downward and the succeeding slice is subdivided.
But, the number of subdivisions (uniform thickness) to
This dual direction examination was less likely to miss be made on a required slab are obtained as
high-curvature regions as compared to those procedures,
which only examine upward from the current slice.
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Stepwise Uniform Refinement Concept Local Adaptive Slicing Concept
where Nztop and Nzbottom are the sets of unit normal z [Tyberg and Bohn, 1998]
components for points Pi across the bottom and top levels Local adaptive slicing of parts uses the same limiting
of a particular slab, respectively. cusp height concept, to determine slice thickness.
The resulting uniform layer thickness within a particular In this approach, first, individual parts and features in a
slab is therefore given by build area identified and then slicing is carried out
independent of one another.
It is more often the case for several parts or features to
coexist at the same height with different geometries such
that each require distinct layer thickness to meet the
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tolerance conditions. 28
Local Adaptive Slicing Concept Local Adaptive Slicing Concept
[Tyberg and Bohn, 1998] Here, a tessellated CAD model is first sliced into
Local adaptive slicing of parts uses the same limiting uniformly thick slabs using the maximum thickness
cusp height concept, to determine slice thickness. available in a RP system.
In this approach, first, individual parts and features in a The resulting contours belonging to the top and
build area identified and then slicing is carried out bottom slices are then matched using topological
independent of one another. information to form a set of sub-slabs.
It is more often the case for several parts or features to Finally, each sub-slab is independently divided into a
coexist at the same height with different geometries such distinct number of thinner layers based on the vertical
that each require distinct layer thickness to meet the slope of its surface or surfaces.
tolerance conditions. 29 30
Concept of accurate exterior and fast
Local Adaptive Slicing Concept interior slicing
Typical parts sliced by local adaptive slicing
31 32
Hatching Pattern for Laser Movement
on each slice layer