39-245
Rapid Design through Virtual and Physical Prototyping

Rapid Manufacturing--Processes at Universities or R&D Labs

• CyberCut -- http://kingkong.me.berkeley.edu/cybercut/
  CyberCut is a World Wide Web Based Design to Fabrication Tool. The system has three parts: a CAD system built on Destructive Solid Geometry principles in which the design process is carried out in anticipation of the downstream manufacturing processes; a planning system with access to a knowledge base containing the available tools and fixtures; and an open architecture machine tool controller that can receive the high level design and planning information and carry out sensor-based precision machining.
  

Layered Systems

• Fockele & Schwarze: (LMS)
  The technology is similar to Stereolythography except here they are experimenting with a 2 W Nd:YAG solid-state laser. An advantage of the methodology used, called direct slicing approach, over standard STL methods lies in its ability to incorporate true geometric representation (not linear tessellation) with smaller files. (Fockele & Schwarze)
  See also:
  Article http://itri.loyola.edu/rp/p1_focke.htm

• Formigraphic Engine/Battelle: Photochemical Machining
  Photochemical Machining, a process similar to SLA but still under development, uses two intersecting laser beams to form a three-dimensional prototype out of a photopolymer block. (Mtiac)
  See also:
  Article http://mtiac.hq.iitri.com/MTIAC/pubs/rp/rp47.htm

• The University of Utah: ShapeMaker II http://stress.mech.utah.edu/home/novac/rp.html
  A new rapid prototyping technique is being developed at the Manufacturing Processes Laboratory at the University of Utah that allows engineers to create full scale physical prototypes of their large scale designs literally over night. Where existing RP machines are limited to models that fit within a 30" x 30" x 20" volume, Shapemaker II is capable of producing models with cross sections up to 4 feet by 8 feet with length relatively unlimited. Prototypes are constructed in layers from inexpensive sheets of thermoplastic foam that can vary from 1/4" to 2" thick. The accuracy of the prototype is improved by cutting angled edges onto each layer so that each layer is an exact match to the model at both the bottom and the top surface.
  See also:
  Company Info http://stress.mech.utah.edu/home/novac/sm2.html

• Landfoam Topographics
  Landfoam Topographics has patents on technology similar to Helisys'. Landfoam's system features colored layers and selectively applied adhesives. The selective adhesion facilitates an easier means of breaking away the excess material. (Needham, MA)
  See also:
  Article http://mtiac.hq.iitri.com/MTIAC/pubs/rp/rp37.htm

SINTERING SYSTEMS

• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: Freeform Powder Modeling http://cat.rpi.edu/~rocks/FPMOverview.html
  
  See also:
  Company Info http://cat.rpi.edu/~rocks/PUBS/SFF95-FPM-Abstract.html

• Universidade do Minho in Guimaraes, Portugal: Robot Fusion Welding http://www.uportu.pt/~fernando/rp.html
  
  

• University of Connecticut: Selective Laser Reaction Sintering (SLRS) http://www.ims.uconn.edu/~hmarcus/
  Is a hybrid process that mixes the efforts of selective laser sintering (SLS) and the gas phase SFF. A powder bed is selectively melted under a laser beam, with the melt then reacting with the controlled gas environment to form the desired product upon cooling/sintering. (U. of Connecticut)
  See also:
  Company Info http://www.ims.uconn.edu/~hmarcus/info.htm#program

• U of Texas: Selective Laser Sintering http://lff.me.utexas.edu/sls.html
  Selective Laser Sintering starts with a thin, evenly-distributed layer of powder. A laser is then used to sinter only the powder that is inside a cross-section of the part. The energy added by the laser heats the powder into a glass-like state and individual particles coalesce into a solid. Once the laser has scanned the entire cross-section, another layer of powder is layed on top and the whole process is repeated.
  

DEPOSITION SYSTEMS

• Carnegie Mellon U.: Shape Deposition Manufacturing/Modeling http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sdmStaford U: Shape Deposition Manufacturing/Modelinghttp://www-rpl.stanford.edu/
  Shape Deposition Manufacturing (SDM) is a rapid manufacturing process for high performance parts. SDM can produce fully functional heterogeneous prototypes made from metal, ceramics or plastics. To date the main applications are multi-material metal tooling and conformable embedded electro-mechanical structures.
  See also:
  Company Info http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sdm/
  Company Info http://www-rpl.Stanford.EDU/~rmerz/ACORN/sdm.html

• Rutgers University: Fused Deposition of Ceramics (FDM) http://www.caip.rutgers.edu/sff/
  The objective of this effort is to effectively demostrate the viability of this Fused Deposition of Ceramics (FDC) procedure and develop the associated technology to manufacture functional components of advanced ceramic materials. We estimate that this effort will lead to a halving in the number of steps required in component manufacture while reducing the prototype fabrication time at each iteration to a matter of weeks.
  
  

• Texas Instruments: Printed Computer Tomography (PCT)
  The system under development is very similar to BPM's. This system has a one- foot-cube work envelope, and is purported to have a building speed of one layer per minute. (Mtiac)
  See also:
  Article http://mtiac.hq.iitri.com/MTIAC/pubs/rp/rp44.htm

• U.S. Navy: Electrosetting
  
  See also:
  Article http://mtiac.hq.iitri.com/MTIAC/pubs/rp/rp45.htm

• Babcock & Wilcox: Shape Melting
  Is a process by which molten metal is incrementally deposited and cast to build a part. The method primarily uses gas metal arc welding technology to deposit metal and robotic equipment to control the positioning. (Mtiac)
  See also:
  Article http://mtiac.hq.iitri.com/MTIAC/pubs/rp/rp48.htm

• MIT: Three-Dimensional Printing (3DP) http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena/org/t/tdp/www/
  Three Dimensional Printing is a manufacturing process for the rapid and flexible production of prototype parts and tooling directly from a CAD model. 3D Printing can reduce the time to market for new products, lower product cost by reducing the cost of tooling, and improve product quality by better coupling between design and manufacturing.
  See also:
  Article http://mtiac.hq.iitri.com/MTIAC/pubs/rp/rp49.htm
  Company Info http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena/org/t/tdp/www/

• Incremental Fabrication Technologies: (Ballistic Particle Manufacturing)
  The company is developing a similar system to ballistic particle manufacturing, however in this case the system focuses on metal materials.
  See also:
  Article http://mtiac.hq.iitri.com/MTIAC/pubs/rp/rp43.htm

• University of Texas at Austin: Gas Phase Deposition http://lff.me.utexas.edu/
  Gas Phase Deposition is a solid free-form fabrication (SFF) technique in which a reactive gas is decomposed either pyrolytically (by heat) or photolytically (by photon interaction) to build three-dimensional shapes. The shapes grow from the solid decomposition products of the gas precursor in the pattern determined by the scanning laser. The technique shares much with conventional chemical vapor deposition (CVD), but also has many unique advantages including much higher deposition rates and high selectivity.
  

• Los Alamos National Laboratory: Direct Light Fabrication
  The system appears similar to Laser Shape Deposition at Stanford, except here the part is not machined and undercuts are done by tilting the part.
  

• Tufts University: Rapid Thermal Prototyping http://www.tufts.edu/as/tampl/me/rapid.html
  The current experimental setup involves a moving x-y table, with a stationary plasma torch and digital wire feeder. Stainless steel wire is being used as the weld material deposited on a steel base. (Tufts University)
  See also:
  Company Info http://www.tufts.edu/as/tampl/me/rapid2.html

• The University of Connecticut: Selective Area Laser Deposition (SALD) http://www.ims.uconn.edu/~hmarcus/
  Is a gas phase method for depositing solid material from the interaction of a directed laser beam and various gas precursors inside a vacuum chamber. (The University of Connecticut)
  See also:
  Company Info http://www.ims.uconn.edu/~hmarcus/info.htm#program

• The University of Connecticut: Selective Area Laser Deposition Vapor Infiltration (SALDVI) http://www.ims.uconn.edu/~hmarcus/
  Is a SALD related method that utilizes the solid deposition product from the gas phase reaction to infiltrate the porous spaces in a powder bed. (The University of Connecticut)
  See also:
  Company Info http://www.ims.uconn.edu/~hmarcus/info.htm#program

• University of Nottingham, UK.: 3-D WELDING
  
  See also:
  Article http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/aero/rapid/PROCEEDING/dickens1.html

• IPA (software) and IFAM (materials): Multiphase jet solidification (MJS)
  Is an extrusion-based process, similar to Fused Deposition Modeling methodology that extrudes metal or ceramic slurries using metal injection molding technology.
  See also:
  Article http://itri.loyola.edu/rp/p1_ipa.htm

• 3D Systems: Multi-Jet Modeling http://www.3dsystems.com/
  System is currently under development. Once completed it should be a simple procedure of submitting a print or a plot to a hardcopy device, and the deliverable will be a three-dimensional plot.
  See also:
  Company Info http://www.3dsystems.com/library/edge/117insit.htm

[Return to Rapid Design and Manufacturing Resources on the Web]

sfinger@ri.cmu.edu