Rapid prototyping (RP) technologies have been widely used to reduce the lead-time and development cost of new products. VLM-ST process has been developed to overcome the currently developed RP technologies such as a large building time, a high building cost, an additional post-processing and a large apparatus cost.
VLM-ST process requires an additional human interaction due to the manual stacking and bonding. Hence, building time, building cost and the part quality are dependent on the skill of labor. A novel RP process, fully automated VLM-STprocess (VLM-(VLM-STA), has been developed to improve building efficiency of the process and the human dependency of the part. The objective of this work is to propose a VLM-(VLM-STA process and to develop an apparatus for implementation of the process. VLM-(VLM-STA process and its apparatus have various technical novelties such as two step cutting using a rotating table, an automatic stacking method using two pilot holes and two reference shapes, a concept of automatic unit shape layer (AUSL), and an automatic bonding using the bonding roller and building magazine.
In order to examine the efficiency and the applicability of the proposed process, various three-dimensional shapes, such as a piston, a human head shape and a human bust shape, were fabricated on the apparatus.
