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Information Processing

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Solid Freeform Fabrication: A New Direction in Manufacturing

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Abstract

Producing parts by layer-based manufacturing requires the transformation of the geometric description of a part into a form suitable for processing by the particular SFF process. The process proceeds by first slicing the geometric description of the part into layers. The slicing operation generates the contours of the part for each layer. The contours are then processed in a manner dependent upon the particular SFF technology. For instance, for Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), the contours are discretized into “toggle points” at which the laser beam must be modulated to produce the desired solid. In this chapter, we discuss the representations of parts that are required to support geometric processing for SFF, and the interfaces between geometry sources and SFF software. We also describe slicing algorithms and processing within layers. The chapter ends with a short discussion of process planning for SFF based on geometric considerations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA

    Joseph J. Beaman, Joel W. Barlow, David L. Bourell & Richard H. Crawford

  2. University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA

    Harris L. Marcus

  3. DTM Corporation, Austin, Texas, USA

    Kevin P. McAlea

Authors
  1. Joseph J. Beaman
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  2. Joel W. Barlow
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  3. David L. Bourell
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  4. Richard H. Crawford
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  5. Harris L. Marcus
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  6. Kevin P. McAlea
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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Beaman, J.J., Barlow, J.W., Bourell, D.L., Crawford, R.H., Marcus, H.L., McAlea, K.P. (1997). Information Processing. In: Solid Freeform Fabrication: A New Direction in Manufacturing. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6327-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6327-3_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-9834-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-6327-3

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