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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I most humbly surrender with gratitude before my
teachers. They are my guiding inspiration who awaked my sub
conscious mind & engineering talents through the inspiration,
sincerity, spending precious time & imparting
knowledge presenting a success system before
which difficulties, failures & obstacles are powerless but stepping
stones to success under extra stress. My professor taught me to
relentlessly work hard under pressure to improve my capacity
which I understand is incredible, formidable &impossible.
Circumstances cannot change us but we can change the
circumstance forgetting physical & mental pains to achieve the goal
accurately within time with zero tolerance with genuine desire for
success and inspiration.
My emeritus professor changed my negative attitude to
positive result oriented action with preference directing me to
understanding, acceptance & direction.
I express my genuine gratitude to staff & lab technicians
for their co-operation. I am much delighted and obliged to this
campus, lab & immaculate library, multicultural but friendly
colleagues. By changing the attitude we can change the life for
positive results.
I have boundless love & obligation to my parents for
arranging me education in this esteemed & prestigious University. I
am proud of being a student of a prestigious institution.

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ABSTRACT
The laminated object manufacturing (LOM) process is an
effective rapid prototyping technology with a variety of possible
applications. It is developed by Helisys Inc. The main process of the
LOM consists of at first, a slice material such as paper is
transported onto the work table, the work table raise, and then a
hot beam press and heat ups the shape into small piece in order to
wipe them off after build all layers; after cutting is finished, the
work table fall and repeat the first step. An alternate method is to
collect all the cut layers of the prototype first and then stacking is
done layer by layer with gluing them properly.
As rapid prototyping also includes developing complex
prototypes, LOM being a rapid prototyping process face difficulties
in making complex prototypes as a cubing methods used to support
prototype being made. But the cubes cannot support the
overhanging or island structures in the prototype due to its
structure. The removal process of cubes known as de-cubing is
tedious, time consuming, labor intensive and also causes damages
to the prototype during its removal. The LOM process here is
developed by adopting powder as the support material eliminating
the de-cubing method, as powder provides support to
the prototype being made and also the overhanging structures in it.
Two complex prototypes have been made and compare with the
current Rapid prototyping technologies proving this process to be
cost effective and time efficient.

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CONTENT
TOPIC PAGE NO
1 - Introduction 4
2 - Process of LOM 6
3 - Aim 7
4 - Objective 7
5 - Deliverables 8
6 - LOM 9
7 - Machine Structure 10
8 - Procedure 11
9 - Software 13
10- Advantages 15
11- Disadvantages 16
12- Application 17
13-Conclusion 18



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INTRODUCTION

In past decade, a lot of important breakthroughs have
been made in the theoretical research and its application about
the rapid prototyping and manufacturing (RP/M) technology.
Although there are some reports in which the ceramic
is used as the modeling materials, in the most case the
modeling materials used are those such as plastics, paper or
wood. During its initial development stage, RP/M technique is
usually used to evaluate the correctness of the three
dimensional model resulted from CAD, the materials such as
plastics used as modeling materials are good enough for that
purpose. With its application extending to the fields such as the
check of design, the evaluation of performance, the trial
fabrication or the manufacturing of the functional parts, RP/M
technique must be further improved with the effort to use
some other materials rather than the ones mentioned above.
One of the attempts is to use metal as the modeling materials.
There are some reports using the sheet metal as
modeling materials by laminated object manufacturing (LOM)
for manufacturing the metallic functional parts. After
examining on the available results, we have realized that there
are some problems to be solved when using the sheet metal as
the modeling materials in LOM process, one of them is how to
get the expected laminating accuracy. It is well known that the
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thinner the laminating layer is, the higher the modeling
accuracy is. The thickness of laminating layer for the available
LOM processes, which use paper, plastics or wood plate as
modeling materials, is usually only 0.05-0.1mm. For using metal
plate as modeling material, there is a research report of using
sheet steel of 0.2mm thick, and the attempt would be made to
use thinner sheet metal plates. But using thinner sheet metal
brings about other problems, for example, the strength of steel
decreases with the increase of the modeling time. In addition,
the sheet steel thinner than 0.2 mm with the bond coated on
its both surface is difficult to be made practically.
In this paper the accuracy study on LOM is presented. Authors
have done a basic analysis on theoretical manufacturing error
for LOM in reference. Based on the further analysis of the
theoretical manufacturing error and the quantity of remaining
material to be removed by finish process (that is said as
remaining quantity) caused by LOM process and 3-D numerical
control manufacturing (that is said as 3-D NC process), a new
LOM process to reduce the theoretical manufacturing error and
remaining quantity is proposed.



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The Process of Laminated
Object Manufacturing:-

The Laminated Object Manufacturing is the process which
consist of laser (or cutter), heated roller, a support, a platform, and
a roll of paper or material used for making prototype.
The process starts with a paper material which is brought
onto a work table, the work table then tend to rise. The paper or
the material is brought in-front of laser such that the laser cuts the
paper or material layer by layer. These layers have adhesives
underneath it or could be applied under it so that they are stacked
after they are cut (cut and bond process). After cutting each layer
the build platform goes down and the layer comes on for it to be
cut. As these layers cannot be made into a prototype in air
without any support, thus they were supported by cubes and
after the whole process of cutting was over the build platform is
made to rise above and the prototype is taken after the time
consuming and tedious de-cubing process.





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The main purpose (Aim):-
The purpose of this project is to develop a process for the
laminated object manufacturing without the process of de-cubing.
Thus, the main aim is to develop
the process to create any type of complex prototype using the Lami
nated ObjectManufacturing process without de-cubing.
Objectives:-

Getting knowledge of Laminated Object Manufacturing
(L.O.M) and the theory on it.

Developing the process to show the prototype can be created
without the de-cubing process in Laminated Object
Manufacturing.


Developing the process to save time and cost and making the
prototype with proper accuracy.

Making complex prototypes with proper accuracy using the
methods that will save time and be cost effective.


Finding and applying the methods to support island objects or
overhanging structures in complex prototypes.
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Deliverables:-

To provide a cost effective method of making prototypes

To provide a process that is time consuming when compared
to the current Laminated Object Manufacturing process and
other rapid prototyping processes


A report regarding the problems, solution, the methods of
solving the problems and the comparison of the prototype
being made with that of other rapid prototyping systems

A log book with updated research details and changes made
in the project methodology.


A poster describing the project at a glance

Complex prototypes to show prototypes that are complex in
nature can be built without the process of de-cubing.




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Laminated Object Manufacturing
(LOM):-

The Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) system
was introduced in 1991 by Helisys, CA. The mechanism of the
system starts with a sheet placed over a build platform, a laser
to cut the sheets in the designed way as in the CAD model or in
the STL file, a roller to put pressure on the sheets on the
previous one which is cut by applying glue in between the
sheets or using adhesive coated sheets so as to stack the layers
properly. After the completion of cutting each layer the built
platform lowers and then the new layer of sheet again sits on
the previous one and the process continues. After the layers
are cut the waste material around it supports the model and
can be removed once the model is built. LOM is one of the
cheapest systems in Rapid Prototyping to make parts of
complex geometry.
Machine Structure:-
The mechanical part of the system contains an unwinding and a
rewinding roll connected by a ribbon of sheet material routed
through several idler rollers. These rolls store and supply the
material. The laminated part is grown on a platform capable of
a vertical incremental movement under the action of a stepper
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motor. Above the platform is located a heated roller capable of
heating and compressing the ribbon between itself and the
stack of laminations on the platform. As a result of a single
reciprocal motion of the heated roller the ribbon material is
bonded to the top of the stack. An X-Y positioning table carries
two mirrors which reflect a beam from a C02 laser and a lens
which focuses the beam on the upper surface of the laminated
stack so as to cut the very top layer. Scrap pieces remain on the
platform as the part is being built. They are diced by the laser
beam into crosshatched squares and serve as a support
structure for the part. A picture of a LOM machine is shown
billow.

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PROCEDURE:-
A computer which runs the system is capable of slicing a 3-D
solid model into thin two-dimensional cross-sections.
The thickness of each cross-section is equal to the thickness
of the material used in the process.
At first, the geometry of a cross section is generated by the
computer.
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The geometrical information is fed into the LOM system
which guides the laser beam cutting around the periphery of
the cross-section.
The laser cuts to the depth of one layer of the material. The
material which surrounds the cross-section is usually
crosshatched by the laser beam into squares to facilitate
separation at the completion of the process.
In the areas where attachment of the material which
belongs to the part to the material which surrounds it is
undesirable the laser beam ablates the portions of the
bottom layer to prevent bonding. Sometimes fine crosshatch
of these portions can achieve virtually the same effect.
Next, the platform moves down. The ribbon moves by an
increment exceeding the length of a cross-section onto the
rewinding roll.
As the platform moves up, the heated roller moves across
the stack while pressing the ribbon against the stack and
bonding it to the upper layer.
Meanwhile, the height of the stack is measured by the
machine and fed back to the computer where the next layer
is calculated according to the current measurement.
Laser beam cuts a new cross-section. The process continues
until all of the cross sections have been deposited and cut.
The product comes out of the machine as a rectangular
block containing the part.
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The material surrounding the part has already been diced
into small cubes due to a "crosshatch" cut by the laser, so
they can be separated easily from the part.



LOM Model: the piece is freed from its orthogonal support matrix. The appearance of the final object is wood like.
Software:-

The control and slicing software for the LOM machines called
LOM Slice, takes files in the STL format as an input. After
receiving a few parameters specified by an operator, the
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software supervises the LOM machine throughout the
unattended operation.

Some features of the current version of the software are shown
as follows:

A proprietary algorithm enables LOM Slice to slice each layer
"on the fly"; in other words, while the LOM machine is
laminating and cutting one layer, LOM Slice is concurrently
computing the next slice. Therefore, no extra computing time
is required for slicing and simply an IBM-compatible PC is
needed as the platform.
By constantly receiving feedback of the current height of the
stack from the LOM machine. LOM Slice applies dynamic
height control procedure to eliminate hardware turbulence
and adjust the slicing increment. Thanks to the real-time
slicing capability, every layer is sliced precisely.
LOM Slice has been developed under Microsoft Windows 3.0
environment. The Windows's popularity and user-
friendliness itself makes it easy to learn and operate.
LOM Slice possesses robust capacity of dealing with
imperfect STL files. Not every STL-generating CAD system
does a perfect jobs; some STL files are created with
discontinuities which means that the surfaces of STL objects
are not closed completely. LOM Slice can tolerate these cases
and clarify these ambiguities to make a successful slice.
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LOM Slice has a beam compensation ability. Even having
been described as a "zero-diameter tool," a laser beam still
has a thickness of several thousandth of an inch. The
software offsets the center path of the beam so as to cut a
precise outline of each cross sections.
Other utilities such as: translation, scaling, and rotation of
the object; multi-layering. i.e., laminate more than one layer
then cut once; build several objects in one production. Run
from different STL files or duplicate the same object; and so
on.







Advantages:-
Due to its simple and straightforward concept, the
LOM process has several advantages:
A variety of organic and inorganic materials can be used in
the LOM process allowing the user to meet various
requirements such as price range, environmental concerns,
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chemical and mechanical properties, color and appearance,
secondary process durability, etc. Materials such as paper,
plastic, ceramic, composite, and metal have been proved
applicable to the LOM process. Virtually, any sheet-form
material which can be bonded to itself and can be cut by
laser is suitable for this technique.
The process is much faster than competitive techniques,
since the laser does not have to scan the entire area of a
cross-section. Instead it just has to go around its periphery.
Layers are glued to the stack virtually instantaneously,
substantially reducing layer formation time. The speed
advantage of the process grows with the size of the
manufactured part. The more volume of material is
contained within the part the stronger is the speed
advantage.
The process produces virtually no internal stress and
associated with it undesirable deformation. Also, because
the in-process part is already solid, it is convenient to
measure the actual height and perform real-time slicing on
the fly. High precision is achieved due to the absence of
shrinkage and ability to perform real-time measurement and
slicing.
A finer surface definition is expected due to the availability of
sheets, which could be as thin as 0.0005.
No support structure is needed since exterior material
remains surrounding the part while the LOM process
proceeds, it naturally provides a support for overhang and
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undercut potions of the part. This eliminates extra design
time required to create proper support structures.

Disadvantages:-
Difficulty in producing hollow parts
Traditional manufacturing is usually much faster when mass
producing identical parts
Fire hazard is occasionally happened when the working
chamber becomes too hot
The built parts absorb moisture quickly
The process is restricted to build complex parts
It is very difficult to remove the waste materials from inside
Difficulty in supporting overhanging structures




Applications of LOM Process:-
Rapid prototyping machines have developed in Center
for Laser Rapid Forming, Tsinghua University, China, such as M-
RPMS-III, SSM-800 and SSM-1600, they could perform the LOM
process.
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The LOM process can be applied in many field such as
patternmaking, art recurring, toy designing and so on. Figure1
shows a thin-wall part manufactured by LOM process. This part
is very complicated and large. There are many difficulties
manufacturing this part by other process such as FDM. It is too
large to that process. Figure2 shows a ball part manufactured
by LOM process. If this ball is produced by FDM process, the
support material would be a very serious problem. While in
LOM process, there is no problem.



Figure 1. A thin-wall part manufactured by LOM process
Figure 2. A Taiji ball manufactured by LOM process
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CONCLUSION:-
The Laminated Object Manufacturing (L.O.M) can be
regarded as one of the quick rapid prototyping systems where
powder has been adopted as the new support for supporting
the complex prototypes with the elimination of the de-cubing
method. The prototype has been made in this process by eco-
friendly and recyclable materials which are easily available and
are cheaper ingredients as raw materials. It has been proved
that any complex prototype could be made by L.O. M. in a cost
effective way and also has proved to be time efficient. The only
problem seen in this method was a poor surface finish which
could be easily sorted out by proper alignment mechanism and
providing improvements in some aspects of the machine where
the built platform has proper dimensions with respect to the
built chamber.