Incorporating Stereolithographic Rapid Prototyping into the Senior Design Laboratory

本项目为主修设计课程的航空航天工程本科学生提供了快速制造他们所设计零件的精确原型或比例模型的方法，而无需依靠熟练的劳动力，并且在一学期课程的时间限制内完成。为了做到这一点，大学使用了一种设备（立体平版印刷机），该设备可以使用CAD实体模型数据库，这些数据库已经由学生在完成设计过程中生成，以生产三维塑料实体原型。立体印刷（立体光刻）是一种安全、可靠、先进的技术，已远远超出了发展阶段，并已在工业上得到广泛应用。该项目代表了这项新技术的开创性应用，体现在商业上可用的设备中，作为一种工具，将可生产性问题带入工程毕业生的教育经验。该项目意义重大，因为它解决了国家迫切需要加强本科工程课程的设计和制造内容，同时为这两个重要的生产方面提供了关键的联系。

This project provides undergraduate aerospace engineering students in design courses the means rapidly to manufacture accurate prototypes or scale models of parts they have designed, without recourse to skilled labor and well within the time constraints of a one semester course. To do so, the University employs an apparatus (Stereolithographic press ) which can use a CAD solid modeler database, already generated by students in the process of finalizing their designs, to produce prototypes as three-dimensional plastic solids. Three- dimensional printing (stereolithography) is safe, dependable, state-of-the-art technology, well beyond the development stage, and already coming into wide use in industry. This project represents a pioneering use of this new technology, embodied in a commercially available apparatus, as a tool to bring the issue of producibility into the educational experience of engineering graduates. The project is significant because it addresses the urgent national need to strengthen the design and manufacturing content of undergraduate engineering curricula while providing the crucial linkage between those two important aspects of production.