.............................................................................................x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION...........................................................................1 1.1Background .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Bone implant manufacturing using Rapid Prototyping ...

Rapid manufacturing is emerging as a technology that enables the fabrication of three-dimensional heterogeneous objects. Compared to homogeneous objects, the fabrication of heterogeneous objects is very complicated for the processing of material information especially Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs). To take full advantage of rapid manufacturing, some methods to design and fabricate hetero...

The small manufacturing company specializes in manufacturing of ear molds for hearing aids. Each ear mold is custom made for every individual patient. Today the manufacturing process is 100% manual and requires very skilled labor. To improve this process and introduce modern technology the Company contacted Center for Applied Research in Engineering and Science at Robert Morris University (RMUC...

Rapid Prototyping (RP) presents the automatic production of physical parts using by additive manufacturing technology. The start techniques for Rapid Prototyping became available in the late 1980s and were used to produce models and prototype parts. Today they are used for a much wider range of applications and are even used to manufacture productionquality parts in relatively small numbers. Ra...

The Selective Laser Sintering Process of thermoplastics (SLS) enables the manufacturing of components with complex shape in a short time period without the manufacturing of a specific mold. However, this manufacturing process is limited by the restricted range of materials. In contrast to this primary shaping process, vacuum casting allows a quick, inexpensive and highly accurate process but it...

The meso/micro layered manufacturing technologies have significant implications for the design and fabrication of complex miniature structures. A laser-based additive/subtractive Rapid Manufacturing system is thus developed to build meso/micro structures. By incorporating laser microdeposition and micromachining with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser that has four harmonic wavelengths, this manufacturing s...

Inspired by the developments of biomimetic design and layer manufacturing, we present a microstructure design method which uses complex internal structures to achieve an optimal design. Similar to 2D texture mapping, our approach is based on mapping a 3D microstructure into a design space to generate internal structures. We develop a texture mapping design system which enables a designer to sel...

Yongnian Yan School of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China Renji Zhang School of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China Qingping Lu School of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China Zhaohui Du School of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, People’s Rep...

nowadays, we live in a world which quality, speed, accuracy and cost are the most important parameters in parts' design and manufacturing. due to the complexity of part manufacturing, traditional and nontraditional manufacturing techniques are used. aerodynamic tests usually requires one or several models for testing in wind tunnels and these models typically have particular complexities in whi...

Technologies of Rapid Prototyping (RP) represents the rapid production of 3D physical parts using by additive manufacturing technology. The start these techniques became available in the late 1980s and were used to produce 3D models and prototype parts. Today they are used for a much wider range of applications and are even used to manufacture production-quality parts in relatively small number...