When building parts in an SLA machine, the user is faced with many decisions regarding how the part will be built. The user can control the quality of the build by changing numerous SLA process variables, such as layer thickness, by reorienting the part, or even by changing resins. A user will probably have preferences for the part build (i.e., accuracy or speed), but may not understand how to vary the process variables to produce the desired results. To complicate matters, new resins are being developed and new SLA technologies are periodically updated. The overall goal of this project is to design an experimental system to characterize and calibrate SLA products and processes. This proposed system should be applicable to new resins and SLA technologies as they are introduced.
Brian Davis graduated in Fall 2001 after working on this project, supervised by Janet Allen. This project continued the research of Charity Lynn-Charney and Joel McClurkin, who conducted extensive accuracy studies of our SLA-250. Brian had the task of verifying past work and, more importantly, of developing a general experimental methodology for SLA accuracy assessment. Research results provide input to many different projects, including our rapid tooling work, our other metrology work, and the Rapid Tooling Testbed project. Specifically, this work provided the empirical models of SL capability that were needed for SL process planning for the RTTB project. More importantly, a characterization and calibration procedure was developed, based on ASME and ISO standards for CNC machines. This procedure is an important contribution to the eventual development of characterization standards for SFF machines, as well as all manufacturing machine tools.
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