Mumbai University > Mechanical Engineering > Sem 7 > CAD CAM CAE

Marks: 5 Marks

Year: Dec 2016

The most commonly used process for rapid prototyping is the stereo lithography or photo-lithography. These systems build shapes using light to selectively solidity photo curable resins. Sterolithography machines, convert three - dimensional CAD data of physical objects into vertical stacks of slices. A low - power ultraviolet laser beam is then carefully traced across a vat of photo curable liquid polymer, producing a single layer of solidified resin - the first slice of the object under construction. The laser beam is guided across the surface (by servo - controlled galvanometer mirrors), drawing a cross - sectional pattern in the x-y plane to form a solid section. the initial layers is then lowered incrementally by the height of the next slice, whereupon the layer is re-coated with resin and another is traced on top of it. Thizs produced is repeated until the entire part is fabricated. Though this was the first process commercialized, it is expensive and is limited to some of the photo - curable plastic materials only.