Rapid Prototyping

Solid freeform fabrication (SFF) techniques involve

layerwise fabrication of parts or prototypes from a
computer aided design (CAD) representation without
the use of any part-specic tooling. There was an
explosion in the number of SFFprocesses over the last
decade of the twentieth century. The major application
of most of the SFF processes has been in the eld of
prototyping and hence, many of the SFF techniques
are also called rapid prototyping techniques. As
rapid prototyping implies, the advent of the various
SFF techniques has resulted in tremendous time
saving, especially for complicated models\compo-
nents. Typically, very complex models that would take
several months to fabricate by traditional methods
can be made in a few days or less with SFF techniques
(Kai and Fai 1997).
There are, in general, two types of prototyping
applications. One type of prototyping is used to test
the design for form and t. In this case the primary
concern is with the dimensions of the fabricated
prototype. In the other types of prototyping, com-
ponents (or prototypes) are made to test their func-
tional performance and not just the form or t. This
sort of prototyping is called functional prototyping.
Recently, there has been a thrust, especially in the
USA, to develop SFF techniques for prototyping and
manufacturing of functional components made of
ceramics or metals. Some of the more important SFF
techniques that have been developed in this category
are stereolithography (SLA) of ceramics (Grith and
Halloran 1997, Grith et al. 1997 p. 403), selective
laser sintering (SLS) (Manriquez-Frayre and Bourell
1990, Nutt 1991, Subramanian et al. 1993, Laksh-
minarayan et al. 1990, Carter and Jones 1993, Vail
and Barlow 1991), computer aided manufacturing of
layered engineering materials (CAM-LEM) (Cawley
et al. 1995, 1998, Liu et al. 1999), three-dimensional
printing (Sachs et al. 1995, 1992, Grau et al. 1997) and
fused deposition of ceramics and metals (FDC and
FDMet) (Danforth et al. 1998, Agarwala et al. 1996,
Bandyopadhyay et al. 1997, Wu et al. 1999). In the
following sections these important SFF processes will
be introduced.
1. Stereolithography
Stereolithography (SLA) of polymers is considered to
be the rst SFF technique and was developed by 3-D
systems, Inc. (CA, USA) in 1988 (Kai and Fai 1997).
A schematic of the SLA process is shown in Fig. 1.
SLA involves UV-assisted photopolymerization of
liquid monomers. A UV laser is scanned over a layer
of the liquid monomer to cure the monomer in selected
areas as dictated by the tool paths. After completion of
one layer, another layer of resin is coated on top of
the cured layer. This process is called recoating. The
process of recoating and curing is repeated until the
part is completed.
In 1996, Halloran et al. of the University of
Michigan modied the SLA process to produce
ceramic parts (Grith and Halloran 1996). In this
process, a ceramic particle lled photocurable resin is
used in place of the virgin resin. They successfully
demonstrated the use of a variety of ceramic materials
such as silica, alumina, silicon nitride, and hydroxy-
apatite in the SLA of ceramics (Brady et al. 1996).
There are still some problems regarding SLA due to
the lower cure depth encountered in ceramic suspen-
sions in comparison with polymer suspensions (Brady
et al. 1997).
One of the key advantages of the SLAof ceramics is
the possibility of fabricating ceramic parts with ne
features of about 100m. Another advantage of the
process is the ability to make parts with excellent
surface nish. Surface roughness values as lowas 4m
have been achieved for the top surface and 27.5mfor
the side surfaces (Brady et al. 1998).
2. Three-dimensional Printing
Three-dimensional printing (3DP) was invented at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988. The
basic idea of 3DP is to build a ceramic or metal green
part by printing binder onto a layer of deposited
powder. A schematic of the 3DP process is shown in
Fig. 2 (Sachs et al. 1998b).
The binder is printed using an ink jet printer. Both
drop on demand and continuous jet printing tech-
niques were tried with 3DP, but continuous jet was
chosen due to its higher rate of binder deposition. The
binder has to meet a number of requirements to be
Figure 1
Schematic showing the operation of a typical
stereolithography (SLA) apparatus.
1
Rapid Prototyping
Figure 2
Schematic showing the dierent steps involved in the fabrication of a component via three-dimensional printing (3DP)
technique (Sachs et al. 1998).
useful in 3DP (Sachs et al. 1998a). First, the binder
solution has to be of suciently low viscosity for
successful droplet formation. In addition, the binder
must dry before the next layer is deposited. In this
technique, a continuous stream of droplets emerges
from the nozzle. Some of the droplets in the emerging
stream may be charged. The uncharged droplets will
follow a straight path through the deection plates to
be deposited on the part being built, while charged
droplets will be deected to the side away from the
deposition site on the part.
There are essentially two types of 3DP processes
depending on the type of powder bed used. His-
torically, the rst type is the dry powder process. In
this process, a dry powder is deposited from a roller
drum. The powder is fed into the interior of a drum
and, as the drum rotates and traverses a substrate, the
powder is then dispensed out of the drum through a
screen (Sachs et al. 1998b). The drum also acts as the
compacting device. Upon dispensing the powder, the
drum is traversed over the powder bed once more to
accomplish compaction. The drum is vibrated for the
compaction purposes. The powder has to be selected
with the right properties, such as the particle size and
size distribution to get good dispensing and packing
behavior (Sachs et al. 1998b).
In the second method, a wet slurry process, a slurry
of the powder is sprayed onto a substrate to form the
powder bed. The powder bed is then dried and the
binder is printed into the dried powder bed. After part
completion, the unprinted regions are removed
through redispersion in an ultrasonic bath. Due to
the use of a liquid bath to remove the unprinted
powder, there are some additional requirements for
the binder. The binder should be insoluble in the liquid
used for redispersion (essentially water). Also, the
binder has to penetrate the powder bed fully and bond
with enough strength to withstand ultrasonication.
Various binders have been tried for this purpose,
including latex, wax emulsions, and homogeneous
solution phase binders.
There are various applications for which 3DP is
used. Metal parts and tools are fabricated using the
dry powder method. A colloidal latex binder solution
2
Rapid Prototyping
is used along with stainless steel or tool steel powder
for the purpose of fabricating metal parts or tooling
(Sachs et al. 1998b). The part is usually red to obtain
a sintered skeleton which is then inltrated with a low
melting metal, such as copper or copper alloys to
obtain a fully dense part with minimum shrinkage
(Sachs et al. 1998b). This technology to manufacture
metal parts and tools has been licensed by Extrude-
Hone (Irwin, PA).
Another major application is the manufacturing of
ceramic casting cores or shells for investment casting
of metals. Typically, alumina, or silica with amor-
phous or colloidal silica binder solution is used (Yan
and Gu 1996). Soligen Technologies has licensed this
MIT technology.
Z Corporation (Somerville, MA) uses a modica-
tion of the 3DP dry powder process. In their process,
they use starch powder and a proprietary water-based
binder to manufacture concept models, which are very
simple models for the early stages of prototyping. The
models, made of starch, are then impregnated with a
resin to give them mechanical strength.
Although the 3DP process is well developed and
exible, there are still some important issues that need
to be improved. One of the major areas of research is
concerned with improving the dimensional accuracy
and control of the parts made by 3DP. At present, the
typical shrinkage values of metal parts made by 3DP
are about 2% and eorts are underway to reduce that
value to about 0.2%. As the absolute value of
shrinkage is reduced, it will cause a decrease in the
value of uncertainty in shrinkage (Sachs et al. 1999). A
decrease in the uncertainty of shrinkage corresponds
to better dimensional control. In addition to this, there
are also problems associated with the removal of loose
powder from the fabricated part, especially when the
part has a large number of narrow passages.
One of the biggest advantages of 3DP is that it can
be used to build almost any geometry including
undercuts, overhangs, and through-holes as the un-
bound powder acts as the support for the rest of the
part. Also, 3DP can be used to make very ne features,
as small as 100m. 3DP is also a very exible (many
materials and geometry) and well-controlled process.
3. Selective Laser Sintering
Selective laser sintering (SLS), like SLA, is one of the
pioneering SFF techniques. It was commercialized
around 1987 by DTM Corporation (Austin, Texas),
who purchased the patents and licenses from the
University of Texas at Austin (Kai and Fai 1997). The
actual process could be thought of as a hybrid of 3DP
and SLA, in the sense that it involves deposition of a
layer of dry powder, which is then sintered using a
laser. The schematic of a typical SLS process is shown
in Fig. 3. In SLS, a thin layer (approximately 100
200m) of powder is spread on a surface using a
cylindrical roller (Lakshminarayan et al. 1990). Alaser
is then scanned over the powder bed, which heats the
powder locally and sinter-bonds the adjacent particles
to formone layer of the part. The intensity of the laser
beamis modulated according to the computer-dened
cross-section of the part. Typically, the laser is turned
on where the powder needs to be bonded to form a
solid section and turned o where no bonding is
required. The non-sintered particles act as a support
for any hollow section, overhangs or undercuts in the
part (like in the case of 3DP). After the formation of
the rst layer, the next layer of powder is spread over
the rst layer followed by scanning of the laser. The
laser has to have enough intensity to sinter the particles
to the adjacent particles and to the previously fabri-
cated layer. Upon completion of a part, it is removed
from the chamber, the loose powder removed and the
part is post processed, if necessary.
The commercialized SLS process predominantly
uses thermoplastic materials such as ABS, poly-
carbonates, nylon, and wax (Kai et al. 1997). There
has been extensive research at the University of Texas
at Austin to extend this process to include metals and
ceramics. The basic problem associated with metals
and ceramics is that they have much higher melting
points than polymers and, therefore, require much
higher energy input for sintering. Two dierent
approaches have been developed to overcome this
problem, which can be classied into indirect and
direct sintering approaches.
Inthe case of ceramics, there are twodistinct indirect
sintering approaches: (i) using an inorganic binder
(Lakshminarayan et al. 1990, Lakshminarayan and
Marcus 1991); and (ii) using an organic binder
(Subramanian et al. 1993, Vail and Barlow 1991). In
the case of the inorganic binder, the laser melts the
binder, which then binds the particles together in the
green body. In the case of the organic binder, a
polymer coated ceramic or metal powder is used to
form the powder bed. The laser softens or melts the
polymer and bonds the particles in the green body. At
the end of build, further post processing is required to
obtain a fully dense body. More recently, there has
been a thrust to develop a direct sintering approach to
sinter ceramic materials. The basic idea behind this
approach is to use a high power laser (1kW, CO
#
laser)
and a preheated powder feed to achieve the high
temperatures needed for sintering ceramics (Das et al.
1991).
One key advantage of the SLS technique is its
relatively fast build rates compared with SLA of
ceramics or 3DP (a typical 1000cm$ ceramic or metal
part can be built in about 610 hours depending on its
complexity). As the SLS part is built from a powder
bed, the surrounding loose powder acts as the support
material and enables one to build very complex
geometries. As mentioned before, SLS can also be
3
Rapid Prototyping
Figure 3
Schematic of the operation of selective laser sintering (SLS) process (Lakshminarayan et al. 1990).
used to process a wide variety of materials such as
polymers, metals, and ceramics.
4. Laminated Object Manufacturing and
CAM-LEM
Laminated object manufacturing (LOM) and com-
puter aided manufacturing of laminated engineering
materials (CAM-LEM) are two closely related SFF
processing techniques. Both techniques build a part by
the lamination of sheet feedstock, which is cut by a
laser along contours denedby the CADle-generated
tool path. The sequence in which the cutting and
lamination (or stacking) of the sheet feedstock is
accomplished dierentiates the two techniques.
The general approach of LOM is to stack then cut,
as opposed to the cut-then-stack approach of CAM-
LEM (Kai and Fai 1997, Klosterman et al. 1996,
1997a). In LOMof ceramics, ceramic tapes are used as
the sheet feedstock. The tapes are sprayed with a
solvent and then stacked (Klosterman et al. 1996,
1997a). The solvent acts as an adhesive, helping bond
the tapes together. A heated roller is used to further
bond the tapes through thermocompression. Alaser is
then used to cut the tape according to the tool path le.
The area of the tape outside the build contour is cut in
a crosshatch fashion. At the end of the build, the part
is manually removed by cutting the crosshatched
region from the main part by a process called
decubing (Kai and Fai 1997, Klosterman et al.
1997a). After assembly, the layers are laminated by
warm isostatic pressing (or other suitable method) to
achieve intimate interlayer contact, promoting high-
integrity bonding in the subsequent sintering oper-
ation. The laminated green object is then red (with
an optimized heating schedule) to densify the object
and fuse the layers and particles within the layers into
a monolithic structure.
Although LOM is attractive, there are some prob-
lems. The need to decube makes it labor intensive and
it usually involves long processing times (Klosterman
et al. 1997a). Also, decubing of ceramic parts is dicult
and damage to the green part can occur (Klosterman
et al. 1997a). Research in LOM is being conducted by
the University of Dayton Research Institute in colla-
boration with Helisys, and is focused on trying to
overcome the above problems and make LOM of
ceramics an automated process (Kai and Fai 1997,
Klosterman et al. 1997a). Some of the materials so far
usedin LOMare Si
$
N
%
, SiC, SiCber\SiCcomposites,
and hydroxyapatite (Kai and Fai 1997, Klosterman et
al. 1996, 1997a, 1997b, Pope et al. 1997, Steidle et al.
1997). These materials have been used to make parts
such as bone implants, turbine blades, and ceramic
matrix composites. Ceramic preforms using LOM of
Al
#
O
$
and silica have also been fabricated (Agarwala
et al. 1999).
CAM-LEM is a solid freeform fabrication tech-
nique capable of fabricating functional components
from engineering materials such as ceramics, metals,
and engineering plastics. The process was developed
as a result of collaboration between Case Western
4
Rapid Prototyping
Figure 4
Schematic of the dierent steps involved in the building of parts by computer-aided manufacturing of laminated
engineering materials (CAM-LEM) (Cawley et al. 1998).
Reserve University and CAM-LEM, Inc., Cleveland,
OH (Cawley et al. 1995). A schematic of the process is
shown in Fig. 4 (Cawley et al. 1995). The process uses
a powder lled sheet feedstock, which is laser cut using
a lowpowered CO
#
laser along the contours dened by
the CAD le-generated tool path. The cut sheets are
then robotically stacked to formthe three-dimensional
object, which undergoes subsequent post-processing
to obtain the fully dense functional component. Some
of the materials used in CAM-LEM are alumina, PZT
(lead zirconate titanate), silicon nitride, and stainless
steel (Liu et al. 1999).
One important issue in the development of the
CAM-LEM technique is feedstock development. The
sheet feedstock used in CAM-LEMis fabricated either
by tape casting or by compression molding (Cawley et
al. 1998). Another issue that has been studied ex-
tensively is that of tacking, alignment, and lamination.
The purpose of tacking is to ensure that the ceramic
tapes are bonded prior to (or during) lamination.
Several techniques have been used to ensure that the
stacked tapes stay in place (Cawley et al. 1995, 1998,
Liu et al. 1999). In one technique, a thin coating of a
heat-sensitive adhesive is applied to the surface of the
green tapes. Tacking is achieved by application of heat
and\or pressure that diuses the thin coating into the
adjacent layers, and produces a bond between them.
One of the important advantages of CAM-LEM is
the fabrication of multi-material parts both from
layer-to-layer and within a layer. During the normal
build in CAM-LEM, a fugitive material can also be
used in conjunction with the build material. The
fugitive sheet is usually cut along contours, which are
complementary to the build material contours. The
cut sheets of the fugitive material are then stacked
along with the build material in each layer similar to a
jigsaw puzzle to form a at layer. This method of
fabricating a part with the fugitive material is unique
5
Rapid Prototyping
to the CAM-LEM technology. The fugitive material
serves as a support during build, and also during post-
processing steps. In addition to performing as a
support, the fugitive material enables proper pressure
transmittance if a thermocompressive lamination pro-
cedure is employed (Cawley et al. 1995). Some of the
typical fugitive materials used are graphite and starch
(Cawley et al. 1995, 1998). The other signicant
advantage of the cut-then-stack approach is that a
de-cubing step is not necessary to remove the excess
material as the shape of each layer is cut prior to
stacking. The lack of this step in the CAM-LEM
process leads to less material loss. This loss may not be
important if one uses paper, but in case of some
ceramic feedstock, the decrease in material loss during
build can lead to a signicant reduction in the overall
cost of the process.
CAM-LEM has been used to fabricate a variety of
products such as uidic devices, ceramic turbine blades
with internal cooling channels, and a dog femur (Liu et
al. 1996). This technique is a very versatile process
with a lot of advantages such as its ability to build
multi-material parts.
5. Fused Deposition Modeling and Fused
Deposition of Ceramics
Fused deposition modeling (FDM), developed by
Stratasys, Inc. (Eden Prairie, MN), uses a 1.78mm
diameter thermoplastic lament feedstock. A sche-
matic of the process is shown in Fig. 5. The lament
feedstock is drawn from a spool and fed into a heated
liqueer via a pair of counter-rotating rollers as shown
in Fig. 5. The liqueer is in essence a cylindrical barrel
that is resistively heated. The thermoplastic lament
melts during its passage through the barrel, and is
extruded through a nozzle (i.e., the lament acts as the
piston). The liqueer moves in the XY plane (Fig. 5)
and deposits the extruded material in elliptical cross-
section elements, called roads, along paths dened by
the CAD le-generated tool path. A single layer is
built by repeated deposition of these roads. Upon
completion of one layer, the build platform indexes
down and the whole process of depositing roads is
repeated. The ambient temperature of the build
envelope is also controlled above room temperature
and below the melting point of the thermoplastic
material so that the material can solidify to form a
rigid part at the end of the fabrication. The build
envelope temperature is also maintained above room
temperature (25mC) to allow for sucient bonding
between the deposited roads and layers.
The rst commercial FDM machine released was
called the three-dimensional modeler. It primarily
used crystalline waxes and nylon-based materials (Kai
and Fai 1997). Prototypes fabricated with these
materials tended to exhibit time-dependent dimen-
sional changes (Yardimci 1999). After a few software
updates and hardware changes, the next generation of
machines, the FDM 1600 and FDM 1650 was de-
veloped. The FDM1650 has a two-material deposition
capability. One material is used as the build material
and the other as the support material. Originally, the
support structure created using FDM machines need-
ed to be removed manually at the end of a build.
Stratasys later introduced a new system called FDM
3000 that uses a water-soluble support material that
enables one to remove the support by washing it in a
water-based solution (Stratasys Homepage). Another
interesting new introduction to the line of FDM
products is the FDM Quantum. The FDM
Quantum is a machine designed to produce large
parts (600mmi500mmi600mm) in a short time
(Stratasys Homepage). The machine uses patented
high speed electromagnetic drives to rapidly move and
control the extrusion head (Stratasys Homepage). The
use of electromagnetic drives eliminates mechanical
parts such as bearings, cables, and gears. This use
allows for faster and more accurate movement of the
extrusion head compared with the other FDMsystems
(Stratasys Homepage).
The materials in use include wax, nylon, ABS,
MABS (medical grade ABS), and wide variety of
elastomers (Kai and Fai 1997). The FDM process is
used to make prototypes, patterns for mold making,
molds for investment casting and more recently for
making medical equipment with the MABS material
(Kai and Fai 1997, Stratasys Homepage). Stratasys
commercialized a systemthat uses an alternative to the
lament-feed mechanism. The machine is called
Genisys and is based on a screw-pump mechanism
developed by IBM (Kai and Fai 1997, Stratasys
Homepage). The use of a screw-pump mechanism
removed some of the restrictions placed on the
materials used due to lament fabrication and use.
Also, due to the use of a screw pump the magnitude of
the extrusion pressure achievable is greater, making
the process more robust (Stratasys Homepage). The
Genisys systemuses three materials (Kai and Fai 1997,
Stratasys Homepage): a general purpose polymer for
design verication purposes, a nylon-like polymer
used to make masters for other processes such as
investment casting, and elastomers used, e.g., in door
seals.
FDC and FDMet are SFF techniques capable of
fabricating functional ceramic and metallic com-
ponents. The process was invented at Rutgers Uni-
versity in 1994 (Danforth et al. 1998) and is based on
a commercial FDMtechnique. The basic idea is to use
a particle-loaded thermoplastic lament as the feed-
stock in place of pure polymer laments. The use of a
wide variety of materials in FDC such as, Si
$
N
%
,
Al
#
O
$
, PZT (lead zirconate titanate), PMN-PT (lead
magnesium niobatelead titanate), stainless steel,
and hydroxyapatite for structural, electronic, and
biostructural applications, has been demonstrated
(Agarwala et al. 1996, Bandyopadhyay et al. 1997,
6
Rapid Prototyping
Figure 5
Schematic showing the basic mechanism of operation of a fused deposition machine. The X, Y, Z directions are indicated
in the gure to enable the reader to understand the directions of motion of the liqueer assembly and the build platform
(Danforth et al. 1998).
Safari et al. 1998). A large amount of work was
conducted over the last six years of the twentieth
century in developing the FDC process. The research
spans the various components of the FDC process
including development of suitable binders, coating of
powders, lament fabrication, FD part building, and
post build processes.
Two dierent binder systems, RU9 and ECG, are in
use in FDC (Agarwala et al. 1996b). The RU9 and
ECG binders consist of four major components: a
polymer backbone, a wax component that acts as a
viscosity modulator and provides stiness, a tackier
component that enables the deposited material to
bond, and an elastomer component to impart exi-
bility. A particular binder, termed ECG9, is the more
commonly used binder.
The RU9 systemhas primarily been used with Si
$
N
%
and Si
$
N
%
\SiC. The various powders used with ECG
systems are: PZT, PMNPT, Al
#
O
$
, hydroxyapatite,
and stainless steel. The selection of the binder is only
the rst in a series of steps necessary to fabricate the
laments.
The quality and uniformity of the extruded lament
is another important step that will determine the
quality of the FDC process and the fabricated part. A
number of processing studies have been conducted on
the RU9\Si
$
N
%
and ECG9\PZTsystems. These studies
have enabled the development of a well-controlled
lament fabrication process capable of making hun-
dreds of meters of laments with uniform properties.
Also, there are a variety of parameters related to the
software, hardware, and feedstock material that aect
the quality of the fabricated part.
In the FDC process in order to build a part, the
perimeter or the boundary of a layer (slice) is built
rst. Then the interior of the part is built using a
contour ll, or a vector ll, or a combination ll. There
are many parameters associated with building a part:
slice thickness, road width, road oset values, angle of
vectoring, motion parameters, and ow parameters.
Liqueer temperature, build envelope temperature,
and nozzle diameter also aect the quality.
One of the important issues involved in FDC is the
buckling of lament during building. The buckling of
lament is a serious obstacle to the development of a
continuous FDCprocess. An empirical quantity based
on the ratio of modulus of lament to the motor
torque during FDC has been used to dierentiate
between laments that buckle and those that do not
buckle. Although, the quantity is useful it does not
7
Rapid Prototyping
provide a scientic understanding of the material- and
machine-related issues that may aect the buckling of
laments during FDC (Venkataraman 2000, Venka-
taraman and Rangarajan 1999).
One of the important stages in post processing is the
binder removal stage. Detailed studies based on design
of experiments have been conducted on the RU9 Si
$
N
%
system to establish a standard N
#
heating cycle, ow
rate of N
#
, the heating cycle in air, and various other
procedures involved in the burnout cycle (Bhargava et
al. 1997).
In the case of the ECG-based system, the binder
removal is conducted entirely in static air. The basic
process involves slow heating in air to a suciently
high temperature to remove the polymer. Some part\
powder specic modications to the basic cycle have
been developed. These modications essentially in-
volve dierent heating rates and hold steps to solve
some of the binder removal related problems such as
slumping, cracking, and bloating. Upon sintering, the
dimensional changes (as-built to nal sintered part)
are 17% along build plane directions and 20% along
the build direction (McIntosh and Danforth 1997).
The corresponding shrinkage values for PZT are 16%
and 20%, respectively (Lous et al. 2000). As can be
seen from the shrinkage values for silicon nitride and
PZT, there is signicant anisotropy in the shrinkage.
The shrinkage in the build direction tends to be higher
than in the build plane directions (McIntosh and
Danforth 1997, Lous et al. 2000).
The extrusion freeformfabrication (EFF) process, a
method that adapted the basic FDM technique, was
developed at Advanced Ceramics Research, Inc.
(Ventura and Narang 1998, Prinz and Weiss 1998,
Dimos et al. 1997). This process uses a piston and
plunger-based high-pressure delivery system. A rod-
type feedstock (5\8 inch diameter, 6 inches long) is fed
into the extruder chamber where it is melted and
extruded. A number of high-melting engineering
thermoplastics, ceramic (silicon nitride) particle-
loaded, and short ber-loaded thermoplastics are
being used with the system(Ventura and Narang 1998,
Prinz and Weiss 1998, Dimos et al. 1997). The piston
plunger mechanism is not a continuous process,
whereas the lament-feed mechanism is. This di-
erence has led to restrictions on the part size that can
be built.
Researchers at the University of Southern Cali-
fornia have developed a process that is based on the
FDM approach called contour crafting (Khoshnevis
1999). The process uses a nozzle (usually larger than
the ones used in FDM) to lay down the roads
corresponding to the outer surface contour of the part.
The contour is shaped using typical shaping tools such
as trowels to obtain a smooth surface. Once a smooth
contour is built the interior of the part can be lled
with the material to make the nal part. The process is
primarily concerned with making parts with a smooth
outer surface and in case of hollowparts smooth inner
and outer surfaces. As the process uses nozzles much
larger than the ones used in FDM, it is typically not
useful for making parts with ne details. The process is
primarily used to make large conceptual models from
clay-based materials.
A novel multimaterial FDC machine is being
developed at Rutgers University. The project is funded
under a ONR-MURI (Oce of Naval Research-Multi
University Research Initiative). Apicture of the multi-
material machine is shown in Fig. 6. One of the
objectives of the MURI program at Rutgers Uni-
versity is to develop an intelligent multi-material
layered manufacturing system based on the FDC
approach. Therefore, one needs to develop the necess-
ary scientic knowledge of the various issues involved
in FDC in order to begin developing an intelligent
machine.
The MURI machine, also calledanintelligent CAD-
based system, is equipped with machine vision, which
monitors the surface quality of layers during the
fabrication. The machine vision is not in a closed loop
with the rest of the system, but work is underway on
closing the loop so that the defects detected can be
removed and the appropriate compensations can be
made for the next layer. Such an online process
monitoring and control system is essential for the
fabrication of high quality parts.
6. Other SFF Techniques for Ceramics and Metals
In addition to the above more mature techniques,
there are a few other techniques for fabrication of
ceramics and metals being developed in various
national laboratories and universities such as laser-
engineered net shaping (LENS) (Grith et al. 1996,
1997, Brooks et al. 1999, Vasinonta et al. 1999),
robocasting (Ceasarano et al. 1997, King et al. 1998,
Ceasarano et al. 1998), multiphase jet solidication
(MJS) (Kai and Fai 1997, Kupp et al. 1997, Greulich
et al. 1995), direct photo shaping of ceramics (DPS)
(Greulich et al. 1995), and shape deposition manu-
facturing (SDM) (Prinz and Weiss 1998).
The LENS process and robocasting are two tech-
niques being developed at Sandia National Labora-
tories. LENS is a laser-based process, where a high
power laser beam (Nd:YAG) is focused on a metal
substrate to create a weld pool. At the same time a
stream of powder is injected into the weld pool. The
laser beam melts the powder locally on top of the
substrate. The substrate is then moved under the laser
and the part is built line-by-line and layer-by-layer.
LENS has been used to fabricate a variety of products
ranging from prototypes to actual injection mold
tooling using materials such as stainless steel, tool
steel, and Inconel alloys (Grith et al. 1997). The
typical build rate of the LENS process is about 20
hours for a 100cm$ part (Grith et al. 1997). The
fabrication of multi-material graded and layered
8
Rapid Prototyping
Figure 6
Photograph illustrating the deposition head of the MURI layered manufacturing machine with four liqueers.
structures using multiple powder feeders has been
demonstrated (Grith et al. 1997).
Robocasting is a deposition-based process using a
high-solids loading (50 vol.%) water-based slurry
(Ceasarano et al. 1997). The slurry is pumped through
an orice onto a moveable substrate to form a
continuous bead. The part is subsequently built by the
layerwise deposition of the slurry. The typical de-
position rates of the slurry in robocasting are about
0.0060.01cm$ s

" (Ceasarano et al. 1997). The use of a

water-based slurry makes the processing environment
friendly. Also, the use of a low volume fraction of
organics makes it easier to post-process parts com-
pared with parts made by FDC or other polymer-
based forming methods. The process has been used to
make parts of varying geometrical complexity using
materials such as Al
#
O
$
, kaolin, PZT, and ZnO
(Ceasarano et al. 1998). Recently, the ability to deposit
multi-materials in a sequential and graded fashion has
been demonstrated (Ceasarano et al. 1998).
MJS is a SFF technique used to fabricate ceramic
and metallic components. It is comparable to the fused
deposition process. The MJS process uses either a low
melting alloy or a powder-binder mixture in granule or
rod form as the feedstock (Kai and Fai 1997, Kupp et
al. 1997). The feedstock is fed into a patented extrusion
apparatus. The low melting alloy or the binder is
melted and the low viscosity (200Pas) uid is
deposited on a substrate (Kupp et al. 1997). The
extruder head is then translated in the XY directions
to fabricate the part line-by-line and layer-by-layer.
Considerable research is being conducted at the
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Materials Research
and Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engi-
neering and Automation, to optimize the process so as
to increase the part complexity and process temp-
erature (Kai and Fai 1997). The list of materials used
in MJS includes stainless steel, high speed steels, FeNi
alloy, Ti and SiC (Kupp et al. 1997, Greulich et al.
1995). Eorts to fabricate directly high-melting-point
metal alloy parts (without binder) and to include other
ceramic materials such as Al
#
O
$
and ZrO
#
are in
progress (Kupp et al. 1997).
Direct photo shaping of ceramics is a novel SFF
technique developed at SRI International. The tech-
nique involves the use of digitally projected visible
9
Rapid Prototyping
light to cure layers of ceramic-loaded photocurable
resins (Ventura and Narang 1998). The photocurable
resin typically consists of 55 vol.%solids, a dispersant,
photoactive monomers, photoinitiator, and a tackier
(to help bond the successive layers). The build process
consists of three basic steps. The rst step involves the
dispensing of the ceramic-loaded photocurable resin.
The resin is dispensed from a peristaltic pump and
then uniformly applied by a doctor blade (Ventura
and Narang 1998). The thickness of the layers is
typically about 50m. In the curing step, the image of
a particular cross-section of the part as dened by the
CADle is digitally projected onto the dispensed layer
of the photocurable resin. The portions of the layer
exposed to the light cures to form the desired cross-
section prole of the part. This sort of a curing is called
curing through ood exposure. The above steps are
then repeated to build the part layer-by-layer. The
cured resin is then removed and the part sintered to
full density in the subsequent post-processing steps. As
mentioned earlier, the part is built by curing the resin
through ood exposure to light instead of a rastering
laser. Therefore, the build time for each layer in this
technique is expected to be shorter than for rastering
laser techniques such as SLAof ceramics (Ventura and
Narang 1998). Typically, a layer of 1cmi1cm area
can be cured in about 4s using the ood exposure
technique as opposed to 10s for SLA of ceramics
(Ventura and Narang 1998). The use of visible light
with a digital projection system makes the process
inexpensive. In addition, the visible light digital
projection systemleads to high resolution (16m). The
direct photo shaping method has been shown to be
feasible for the fabrication of ceramic (silicon nitride,
alumina), metal, and polymer parts (Ventura and
Narang 1998). The method is also being applied to the
fabrication of micro mechanical and electromech-
anical devices containing multiple ceramic\polymer\
metal interfaces (Ventura and Narang 1998).
SDM diers from all other SFF techniques de-
scribed before in that it uses a combination of additive
and subtractive processes to fabricate parts. The
technique was developed at Stanford University (Prinz
and Weiss 1998). The objective of the SDM approach
is to combine the advantages of the additive techniques
with that of the subtractive techniques. In general, the
addition of material is accomplished by dierent
techniques depending on the material to be deposited.
A computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine is
used for material removal. The part is decomposed
into slices or compacts. Then each of the compacts
is fabricated to near net shape using a particular
deposition technique. During the addition process, a
build and a support material are usually deposited.
The deposited layer is then machined to net shape. The
process is repeated layer-by-layer to build the part.
The support material is then removed at the end of the
build process to reveal the part. In this technique, the
compacts are created in such a way that the compact
for the support material has the complement to any
undercuts present in the part. This way an undercut in
the part is replicated by depositing the build material
on the complement of the undercut present in the
support region. In the case of ceramic parts, an
extruder developed by Advanced Ceramics Research
(ACR) is used (Prinz and Weiss 1998). The feedstock
used with the extruder is a rod (15cmlong and 1.14cm
diameter) (Prinz and Weiss 1998). The extruder is
mounted on a commercially available CNC machine
to create an integrated SDM machine. The extruder is
used to deposit the support and the build material.
This is accomplished by manually switching the
extruder tubes preloaded with the materials of choice
(Prinz and Weiss 1998). This process has been used to
make parts from ceramics such as silicon nitride and
alumina. The SDM method has also been used to
make metal parts out of copper, nickel, and stainless
steel. In case of metal parts, either a laser welder (for
steel) or a microcaster (for copper) is used as the
deposition device. The laser welder is similar to LENS
where a YAG laser is used to create a weld pool into
which a stream of powder is injected to build a layer.
In a microcaster, a wire of material is fed into a plasma
that creates superheated droplets of the metal. The
droplets are then deposited onto the substrate to build
a part. SDM is also being used to make microelectro-
mechanical systems (MEMS). For this application,
sputtering and electroplating are used as deposition
methods and micro-CNC and electrical discharge
machining (EDM) are used as shaping or removal
methods. As mentioned before, SDM combines the
advantages of additive and subtractive processes. It
has been used with a wide variety of materials (metals,
ceramics, and polymers) for a wide variety of appli-
cations. The technique can also be used to fabricate
multi-material parts. The process has also been
demonstrated to fabricate parts with embedded elec-
tronics (Prinz and Weiss 1998).
There is yet another interesting SFFtechnique being
developed at Sandia National Laboratories (Dimos et
al. 1997). This technique is called Direct-Write. The
Direct-Write method is being developed in order to
fabricate multi-functional multi-material integrated
ceramic components (MMICCs) (Yardimici 1999).
The MMICCs usually involve a wide variety of devices
such as capacitors, inductors, and conductors embed-
ded in a ceramic substrate. The Direct-Write method is
being developed as a rapid, low volume fabrication
technique for these components. In the Direct-Write
method, ceramic or metal-loaded slurries are printed
onto a substrate. The substrate moves along the paths
dened by a CADle to produce one layer of the part.
The layer is then dried prior to printing the next layer.
In this way, the complete green part (unsintered) is
fabricated in a layerwise fashion. Co-ring or co-
sintering of the green part produced by the Direct-
Write method yields the nal integrated component.
The Direct-Write method uses a commercial depo-
10
Rapid Prototyping
sition technology called Micropen (Ohmcraft, Inc.).
The Micropen system is an automated printing device
for ceramic slurries. In Micropen, the ceramic-loaded
(or metal particle-loaded) inks are printed through
ne orices (about 2550m diameter). One of the
interesting features of the Micropen systemis the force
feedback control. This feature involves balancing the
upward force exerted on the deposition head (pen) due
to the extruding ink and the downward force applied
by an electromagnet (placed above the pen). This sort
of control allows one to print inks with reproducible
thickness (Dimos et al. 1998). It also allows for
printing inks with near constant thickness on subs-
trates with variations in height. As mentioned earlier,
the Micropen can be used to print inks in lines about
2550m wide and about 2550m high. The typical
deposition rate of this technique is about
1i10

& cm$ s

". Inks of silver (conductor), RuO

#
(resi-
stor), dielectric (Ferro 38N is the commercial name),
lead zirconate titanate (dielectric and thick lm actu-
ator) have been successfully printed using this tech-
nique. Also, components such as integrated RC lters
and voltage transformers have been fabricated (Dimos
et al. 1997). A number of co-ring studies are being
conducted to identify possible co-reable materials
(and co-ring conditions) that can be used in Direct-
Write method (Dimos et al. 1997).
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12
Rapid Prototyping
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