Contour Crafting: A New Rapid Prototyping Process

小行星9522982 快速成型技术的发展受到零件尺寸、表面质量和形位公差的限制。 在这个为期一年的研究项目中，将尝试一种新的方法来改善表面质量。 这是一种协同方法，将糊状稠度材料的挤出与机器人控制的刮刀状平滑工具相结合。 尽管这种轮廓工艺方法建立在已建立的3D增材制造技术的基础上，但需要解决组件及其组装到原型机器中的几个基本设计问题，以测试这种创新方法的可行性。 快速成型技术已被设计人员广泛接受，用于测试新零件的形状和配合。 该技术正在慢慢发展到直接从计算机设计中制造最终部件的阶段，消除了几个制造步骤。 这导致了从设计状态到产品发布的非常快的周期时间。 在减少在制品和减少成品库存方面，可以设想其他好处。

9522982 Khoshnevis The current state of the art of rapid prototyping technology is limited by parts size, surface quality and geometric tolerance. In this one year research project, a novel approach to improving surface quality will be attempted. It is a synergistic approach combining extrusion of a paste like consistency materials with a trowel like smoothing tool controlled by a robot. Eventhough this contour crafting approach builds on established 3D additive fabrication techniques, several fundamental design issues of components and their assembly into a prototype machine need to be addressed in order to test out the feasibility of this innovative approach. Rapid prototyping technology has been well accepted by designers to test out form and fit of new parts. The technology is slowly evolving to the stage of making final parts directly from a computer design eliminating several manufacturing steps. This leads to the potential of very fast cycle time from design state to the product launch. Additional benefits could be envisioned in reduced work in process and reduced inventory of finished goods.