Delta DLP 3-D printing of large models
This paper presents a 3-D printing system that uses a low-cost off-the-shelf consumer projector to fabricate large models. Compared with traditional digital light processing (DLP) 3-D printers using a single vertical carriage, the platform of our DLP 3-D printer using delta mechanism can also move h...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/140170 |
| _version_ | 1811687667044188160 |
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| author | Yi, Ran Wu, Chenming Liu, Yong-Jin He, Ying Wang, Charlie C. L. |
| author2 | School of Computer Science and Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Computer Science and Engineering Yi, Ran Wu, Chenming Liu, Yong-Jin He, Ying Wang, Charlie C. L. |
| author_sort | Yi, Ran |
| collection | NTU |
| description | This paper presents a 3-D printing system that uses a low-cost off-the-shelf consumer projector to fabricate large models. Compared with traditional digital light processing (DLP) 3-D printers using a single vertical carriage, the platform of our DLP 3-D printer using delta mechanism can also move horizontally in the plane. We show that this system can print 3-D models much larger than traditional DLP 3-D printers. The major challenge to realize 3-D printing of large models in our system comes from how to cover a planar polygonal domain by a minimum number of rectangles with fixed size, which is NP-hard. We propose a simple yet efficient approximation algorithm to solve this problem. The key idea is to segment a polygonal domain using its medial axis and afterward merge small parts in the segmentation. Given an arbitrary polygon Ω with n generators (i.e., line segments and reflex vertices in Ω), we show that the time complexity of our algorithm is O(n22n) and the number of output rectangles covering Ω is O(Kn) , where K is an input-polygon-dependent constant. A physical prototype system is built and several large 3-D models with complex geometric structures have been printed as examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. Note to Practitioners - Low-cost 3-D printers and 3-D printing of large models are two important but often conflicting goals in manufacturing industry. Usually low-cost devices such as DLP 3-D printer using an off-the-shelf consumer projector cannot print large models, due to the small projection area of the projector. In this paper, we propose to horizontally move the platform such that a large area can be printed by the composition of multiple small projection areas. Based on this new mechanism, we propose a simple yet efficient algorithm to cover an arbitrary polygonal shape (possibly with holes or multiple disjoint polygons) by a small set of rectangles with fixed size. Our algorithm is theoretically sound and can be easily implemented. We built a physical prototype system of the proposed low-cost Delta DLP 3-D printer, which successfully prints several large models with satisfied mechanical properties. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:19:57Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/140170 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:19:57Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1401702020-05-27T03:52:37Z Delta DLP 3-D printing of large models Yi, Ran Wu, Chenming Liu, Yong-Jin He, Ying Wang, Charlie C. L. School of Computer Science and Engineering Engineering::Computer science and engineering Manufacturing Mechanisms This paper presents a 3-D printing system that uses a low-cost off-the-shelf consumer projector to fabricate large models. Compared with traditional digital light processing (DLP) 3-D printers using a single vertical carriage, the platform of our DLP 3-D printer using delta mechanism can also move horizontally in the plane. We show that this system can print 3-D models much larger than traditional DLP 3-D printers. The major challenge to realize 3-D printing of large models in our system comes from how to cover a planar polygonal domain by a minimum number of rectangles with fixed size, which is NP-hard. We propose a simple yet efficient approximation algorithm to solve this problem. The key idea is to segment a polygonal domain using its medial axis and afterward merge small parts in the segmentation. Given an arbitrary polygon Ω with n generators (i.e., line segments and reflex vertices in Ω), we show that the time complexity of our algorithm is O(n22n) and the number of output rectangles covering Ω is O(Kn) , where K is an input-polygon-dependent constant. A physical prototype system is built and several large 3-D models with complex geometric structures have been printed as examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. Note to Practitioners - Low-cost 3-D printers and 3-D printing of large models are two important but often conflicting goals in manufacturing industry. Usually low-cost devices such as DLP 3-D printer using an off-the-shelf consumer projector cannot print large models, due to the small projection area of the projector. In this paper, we propose to horizontally move the platform such that a large area can be printed by the composition of multiple small projection areas. Based on this new mechanism, we propose a simple yet efficient algorithm to cover an arbitrary polygonal shape (possibly with holes or multiple disjoint polygons) by a small set of rectangles with fixed size. Our algorithm is theoretically sound and can be easily implemented. We built a physical prototype system of the proposed low-cost Delta DLP 3-D printer, which successfully prints several large models with satisfied mechanical properties. 2020-05-27T03:52:36Z 2020-05-27T03:52:36Z 2017 Journal Article Yi, R., Wu, C., Liu, Y.-J., He, Y., & Wang, C. C. L. (2018). Delta DLP 3-D printing of large models. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 15(3), 1193-1204. doi:10.1109/TASE.2017.2751664 1545-5955 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/140170 10.1109/TASE.2017.2751664 2-s2.0-85030791304 3 15 1193 1204 en IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering © 2017 IEEE. All rights reserved. |
| spellingShingle | Engineering::Computer science and engineering Manufacturing Mechanisms Yi, Ran Wu, Chenming Liu, Yong-Jin He, Ying Wang, Charlie C. L. Delta DLP 3-D printing of large models |
| title | Delta DLP 3-D printing of large models |
| title_full | Delta DLP 3-D printing of large models |
| title_fullStr | Delta DLP 3-D printing of large models |
| title_full_unstemmed | Delta DLP 3-D printing of large models |
| title_short | Delta DLP 3-D printing of large models |
| title_sort | delta dlp 3 d printing of large models |
| topic | Engineering::Computer science and engineering Manufacturing Mechanisms |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/140170 |
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