Development and Design of Variable Lamination Manufacturing (VLM) Process by Using Expandable Polystyrene Foam

발포 폴리스티렌 폼을 이용한 가변 적층 쾌속 조형 공정 설계 및 개발

Rapid Prototyping (RP) techniques have their unique characteristics according to the working principles: stair-stepped surface of parts due to layer-by-layer stacking, low build speed caused by line-by-line solidification to build one layer, and additional post processing to improve surface roughness, so it is required very high cost to introduce and to maintain RP apparatus. The objective of this study is to develop and design a new RP process, Variable Lamination Manufacturing using expandable polystyrene foam sheet as part material (VLM-S), which can make up for the disadvantage of existing techniques, and to develop an apparatus to implement the process. In order to examine the possibility of practical utilization of the proposed VLM-S process for prototyping of a general three-dimensional shape, an auto-shift lever knob and a pyramid shape were fabricated.