Profile Tolerance Allocation for Rapid Prototyping of Sculptured Surfaces in a Direct Slicing Process

Layer-based manufactured parts and surfaces are inherently subject to stair case effect which can be quantified by cusp height. Cusp height of a layer is the maximum distance measured along a surface normal between the ideal surface and the produced layer. Although calculation of local cusp high is a simple task but estimating the overall deviation zone of the produced surface is a highly nonlinear and complicated problem. This paper presents a practical approach to predict the actual profile tolerances of the surfaces. This prediction is used to allocate profile tolerances for the rapid prototyping process. Also the methodology can be used to select the optimum uniform layer thicknesses that compromise between the number of layers and the desired accuracy of the final surfaces. The unified developed methodologies are capable to analyse complex surfaces and geometries. Variety of experiments is carried out to study the effectiveness and practicality of the presented methodology. The developed methodology can be employed efficiently during design of rapid prototyping parts.