Accelerating fabrication speed in two-laser beam stereolithography system using adaptive crosshatch technique

Abstract

The aim of this research is to develop a novel two-laser beam stereolithography system. The wavelengths of the two semiconductor laser beams are determined to be 405 nm (blue light) and 532 nm (green light), respectively, according to the relative absorbance rate of used visible light curable resin. The blue light laser is suitable for scanning contour of objects because of its fast absorbance, thus giving a narrow cured depth. The green light laser is better suited for scanning the internal crosshatch for condensing the fabrication time because its high power results in a wide cured width and deep penetration. The influence of the photoabsorber, carbon powder with average diameter of 0.1 µm, is discussed and an optimal weight percentage of 1.5 is specified for controlling cured thickness. An adaptive crosshatch technique is introduced and applied to the fabrication process. In addition, a turbine is fabricated using the proposed approach for comparison with the E-DARTS system in terms of fabrication capability. Results show that the developed system can fabricate objects quickly with high accuracy.