Research And Design Of The Rapid Prototyping Machine Of LOM (Laminated Object Manufacturing)

Rapid Prototyping (RP) technology belongs to advanced manufacturing technology. It based on CAD/CAM, numerical control technology and material science etc. The RP technology can change the modeling made by computer into prototype with some functions, or make par rapidly. During the products design and development, by means of RP technology, we can evaluate and checkout products or key parts designed rapidly, so can shorten development cycle of products, and can also bring down development cost to some extend.Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) technology is one of the RP technologies. In this paper, LOM machine is studied and designed. Two main parts of the LOM machine is designed: mechanical part and control system. In the mechanical part design, based on the working principal of the LOM technology and scheme comparison, the main portions of the machine are designed, including lifting device, hot-press roller, paper transfer and laser scanning portion etc. The designed products are modeled using UG. Control system design includes electric hardware design and control software design. In electric hardware design, by means of inserting PCI movement controllers in industrial personal computer and controlling the servomotors with movement controllers, the designed movement of the machine is carried out. The hardware topology diagram and main electric circuit are also designed. In control software design, the key technologies of the control software for lower computer about how to call control functions to form the laser scanning path of the solid cross section is introduced.The study results presented and the LOM machine designed in the paper has some practical application values.