A vibration-assisted method to reduce separation force for stereolithography

作者：Jin Jie; Yang Jingfan; Mao Huachao; Chen Yong^*

来源：Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 2018, 34: 793-801.

DOI：10.1016/j.jmapro.2018.03.052

• Stereolithography
• Additive manufacturing
• Vibration
• Separation force
• Frequencey

Current stereolithography (SL) technology can print layer-based three-dimensional (3D) objects with high precision and fast speed. However, for a constrained surface based top-down or bottom-up SL process, it will be very difficult to separate the building layers from the constrained glass due to the near vacuum environment between the built layer and the constrained glass. The separation force will significantly increase when the contact area increases. Current existing methods to address this problem include tilting the vat, sliding the vat, and adopting the oxygen permeable membrane. However, the construction complexity and cost of the building systems will increase significantly with the increase of the maximum area that the system can build using the existing methods. In this paper, a novel separation method for the SL process utilizing a vibration-assisted glass is presented. A pair of general loudspeakers were used to provide a low frequency vibration for the constrained glass used in the SL process. Two force sensors are used to measure the separation force in real time. Controlled experiments have been implemented and the corresponding data was collected and analyzed. The analyzed results have demonstrated that the proposed method can significantly reduce the separation force for the SL process. Two test cases are presented to show the effectiveness of the presented vibration-assisted SL process.

• 出版日期2018-8