Laser Scanning Path Generation for the Fabrication of Large Size Shape

Selective Laser Sintering(SLS) method is one of Rapid Prototyping(RP) technologies. It has been used to fabricate desirable part to sinter powder and stack the fabricated layer. Since the sintering process occurs using infrared laser having high thermal energy, shrinkage and curling of the fabricated part occurs according to thermal distribution. Therefore, the fast scanning path generation is necessary to eliminate the factors of quality deterioration. In case of fabricating larger size parts, the unique scanning device and scanning path generation should be considered. In this paper, the development of SLS machines being capable of large size fabrication(800${\times}$1000${\times}$800 mm, W${\times}$D${\times}$H) will be addressed. The dual laser system and the unique scanning device have been designed and built, which employ CO2 lasers and dynamic 3-axis scanners. The developed system allows scanning a larger planar surface with the desired laser spot size. Also, to generate the fast scanning paths, adaptive path generation is needed with respect to the shape of each layer, and not simply x, y scanning, but the scanning of arbitrary direction should be enabled. To evaluate the suggested method, the complex part will be used for the experiment fabrication.