Automated Layer Aligning and Stacking System for the Fully Dense Freeform Fabrication Process

Abstract:

The existing building metallic prototypes from metal sheets or foil slices methods suffer some limitations, such as difficulty in making complex features and long process cycle time. The Fully Dense Freeform Fabrication (FDFF) process is a new freeform fabrication method capable of building fully dense prototypes from practically any materials in a layer-by-layer basis, which overcomes the limitations of other methods. However, layer aligning and stacking are still very challenging because aligning and stacking all thin layers takes a lot of time and effort. Therefore, an automated layer aligning and stacking system is proposed and implemented in this paper. A vision system together with a robotics system are developed to automate the FDFF process. Experiments were performed and the results demonstrate that the automated FDFF process can fundamentally improve the concept of rapid prototyping by enabling producing fully dense parts with any complexity and any solid materials for the sizes from micro scale to several feet in a very fast and low cost approach.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 655-657)
• Pages: 1251-1255
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.655-657.1251
• Online since: January 2013
• Authors: Bahram Asiabanpour, He Ping Chen
• Keywords: CAD, Fully Dense Freeform Fabrication, Industrial Automation, Industrial Robot

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