Abstract
Rapid prototyping (RP) has evolved as frontier technology in the recent times, which allows direct transformation of CAD files into functional prototypes where it tremendously reduces the lead time to produce physical prototypes necessary for design verification, fit, and functional analysis by generating the prototypes directly from the CAD data. Part quality in the rapid prototyping process is a function of build parameters such as hatch cure depth, layer thickness, orientation, and hatch spacing. Thus an attempt was made to identify, study, and optimize the process parameters governing the system which are related to part characteristics using Taguchi experimental design techniques quality. The part characteristics can be divided into physical part and mechanical part characteristics. The physical characteristics are surface finish, dimensional accuracy, distortion, layer thickness, hatch cure, and hatch file, whereas mechanical characteristics are flexural strength, ultimate tensile strength, and impact strength. Thus, this paper proposes to characterize the influence of the physical build parameters over the part quality. An L9 orthogonal array was designed with the minimum number of experimental runs with desired parameter settings and also by analysis tools such as ANOVA (analysis of variance). Establishment of experimentally verified correlations between the physical part characteristics and mechanical part characteristics to obtain an optimal process parameter level for betterment of part quality is obtained. The process model obtained by the empirical relation can be used to determine the strength of the prototype for the given set of parameters that shows the dependency of strength, which are essential for designers and RP machine users.
Highlights
Due to the advances in electronics and computers, there has been a significant growth in communication, information technology, and worldwide networking, which leads to globalization and opening of markets [1, 2]
An attempt is made to analyze the process parameters that influence the strength aspect of the SLA parts which are useful for various applications of the prototypes in testing and tooling process
(iv) The empirical relationship between the part strength characteristics and the influencing parameters has been established for stereolithography process, which can predict the strength of the SLA prototypes by prior knowledge of part strength before building the prototypes
Summary
Due to the advances in electronics and computers, there has been a significant growth in communication, information technology, and worldwide networking, which leads to globalization and opening of markets [1, 2]. Strength plays a very important role in rapid tooling [5] where the components have to withstand high pressure during the test of fitment and when used as a die in injection moulding, where the dies prepared through SLA. Guharaja et al made an attempt to obtain optimal settings of green sand casting parameters using Taguchi method [10]. Rao and Padmanabhan used Taguchi method and ANOVA in optimization of process parameters for material removal rate in electrochemical machining of Al/5% SiC composites [11]. An attempt is made in order to achieve high strength of the prototypes with the specified process parameters which gives prior information of the part strength before fabricating the actual SLA prototypes. Parameter optimization of SLA process is investigated and evaluated through a standard test specimen [14, 15]
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