مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - DEVELOPMENT OF MANUFACTURING SOFTWARE FOR SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING MACHINE

Abstract :

Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques, one of the non-conventional manufacturing methods, first emerged in the late 1980s. At the beginning, it was used to make prototype from polymers as a tool for communication and inspection. Later in 1990s, advancements in the rapid prototyping systems paved the way for manufacture of end-use direct functional parts from metal and ceramic. Nowadays, selective laser sintering/melting (SLS/SLM) machines makes it possible for some parts which could not be manufactured through conventional methods due to their geometrical complexity, to be manufactured rapidly by using various metal powders in many areas. In this study, a software that will be able to be used in SLS/SLM bench and in other additive manufacturing system, has been developed. The software has been adapted to a Direct Selective Laser Sintering bench manufactured for research-development (R D) purposes. The software consists of two modules. In the first module, the solid model in stereolithography (STL) file format was visualized as three dimensional (3D), its hole control and fix was made and it was sliced. In the second module, two dimensional (2D) slice of the model which was sliced in the first module was shown, it was replaced on a process table, scan path was created with different scan pattern, the total distance on that scan path was calculated, burning process was started according to scan pattern selected and laser parameters, bench servo motors movements were carried out. The software developed shall contribute to set up a substructure for manufacturing studies for AM machines and R D activities to be held in SLS/SLM field.