SUMMARY

Mask Projection Stereolithography (MPSLA) is a high resolution, additive manufacturing process. With the technology still in its infancy, most research on it has been experimental in nature. In this proposal, a plan analyze the process to formulate a process planning method to cure parts with various geometric constraints is presented. A multi-scale modeling strategy is proposed to model the dimensions of an MPSLA part in terms of the process parameters used to cure it. This strategy involves the computation of the dimensions of individual voxels (3D volume elements) that are cured by the individual pixels on the mask and then, computing the dimensions of an MPSLA part in terms of the dimensions of the voxels that it is composed of. A strategy to apply the MPSLA process model to cure dimensionally accurate parts has been presented. “Compensation zone approach” has been proposed to avoid print through errors in MPSLA builds. This approach entails subtraction of a tailored volume from underneath the CAD model used to build a part, in order to compensate for print through. The Compensation zone profile can be computed by applying the MPSLA process model. It is proposed to employ the MPSLA process model to obtain parts with smooth surfaces. “Adaptive exposure” approach has been proposed to obtain smoother down facing surfaces. The structure of a multi-objective process planning method based on the compromise DSP construct is proposed to cure MPSLA builds with constraints on dimensions, surface finish and build time. Stereolithography resin parameters have a randomness associated with their values. A strategy to model the uncertainties in these parameters and propagate them through the MPSLA process model is presented. This uncertainty analysis shall be used to augment the process planning method to cure parts with dimensions less sensitive to variations in the resin parameters.