Investigations on New Scanning Pattern for Stereolithography

The basic layer-based manufacturing mechanism of stereolithography is built upon a scanning pattern for the entire cross section for each layer. In this investigation, a new schema of scanning is proposed and its effects on dimensional accuracy and surface profile are benchmarked against an industry standard scanning pattern. Experimental results show that the new scanning pattern offers further improvements in terms of dimensional accuracy and geometrical profile as supported by a higher value of process capability index Cpk. The use of Finite Element method to simulate the new scanning pattern is also described in order to provide an analogous insight on process effects and residual stress distribution.