The Implementation of Agile SFFS using 5DOF Robot

Several Solid Freeform Fabrication Systems(SFFS) are commercialized in a few companies for rapid prototyping. However, they have many technical problems including the limitation of applicable materials. A new method of speedy prototyping is required for the recent manufacturing environments of multi-item and small quantity production. The objectives of this paper include the development of a novel method of SFFS, the ${CAFL}^{VM}$(Computer Aided Fabrication of Lamination for Various Material), and the manufacture of the various material samples for the certification of the proposed system and the creation of new application areas. For these objectives, the technologies for a highly accurate robot path control, the optimization of support structure, CAD modeling, adaptive slicing was implemented. In this paper, we design an algorithm that the cutting path of a laser beam which is controlled with constant speed. The laser beam is tangentially controlled in order to solve the inaccuracy of a 3D model surface. The designed algorithm for constant-speed path control and tangent-cutting control is implemented and experimented in the ${CAFL}^{VM}$ system.