Investigation On The Modeling Of IFMC And Support Generation And Slicing Technologies In RP

Ideal Functional Material Components (IFMC) are the heterogeneous objects which are designed for the best functional use, and constructed by homogeneous materials, composition materials, functional gradient materials (FGM) and even period functional meso-structure (PMS).The so called modeling of IFMC is to construct a system which can represent and operate abundant information of geometry shape and corresponding materials, such as constitution, structure and distribution, etc. The model of IFMC is the basis of further analysis, design and manufacturing. The key problems for developing a modeling system of IFMC are: (1) the whole frame of modeling system, in other words, the basic modeling idea; (2) the data structure which can contain abundant geometry information and material information; (3) collate and harmonize operations of the geometry information and the material information.The interactive definition technology in feature modeling is employed for the modeling of IFMC and the geometry shape is taken as the major feature while the material information is considered to be the auxiliary feature and is attached to the major feature module. The modeling system is built on Solid Works platform and the geometry related data structure and operating methods are not going to be discussed in this paper as this CAD platform is powerful on its geometry representation and operation capability. The materials of IFMC are classified, represented and handled rationally in terms of respective characteristics of them. Rational rules are proposed to collate and harmonize relations in the geometry feature handling module and the material feature handling module and between them. The modeling system can export the solid model of IFMC (in STEP format, not STL format) and corresponding material information file.The manufacturing of IFMC is difficult to realize by traditional manufacturing methodologies. However, the emergency and development of RP (Rapid Prototyping) technology enable it possible. Take 3DP (Three-Dimensional Printing) process for an example, it can spray different materials with varied nozzles and finish heterogeneous part layer by layer by bonding.Support generation and slicing are two vital links in RP process, which are also the emphases of research work.The so called support is extra deposited material upwards when forming part layer by layer, which is fabricated with material of part body simultaneously. The support is wanted by the down characteristics of part in the building direction or by the requirement of guaranteeing the precision of part. The key point for generating support is to determine the region on the cutting plane of layer, which wants extra support material and is represented by parameters, such as shape, position and size, etc. If this link is arranged before slicing link, the difference between support body and support blocking body is need to be computed. But, in the case that this link is arranged after slicing link, Boolean operations like union and intersection between polygons on the end-plane of layer are wanted.