Selectively embedding multiple spatially steered fibers in polymer composite parts made using vat photopolymerization

Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composite (FRPC) parts are mostly made as laminates, shells, or surfaces wound with 2D fiber patterns even after the emergence of additive manufacturing. Making FRPC parts with embedded continuous fibers in 3D is not reported previously even though topology optimization shows that such designs are optimal. Earlier attempts in 3D fiber reinforcement have demonstrated additively manufactured parts with channels into which fibers are inserted. In this paper, we present 3D printing techniques along with a printer developed for printing parts with continuous fibers that are spatially embedded inside the matrix using a variant of vat photopolymerization. Multiple continuous fibers are gradually steered as the part is built layer upon layer instead of placing them inside channels made in the part. We show examples of spatial fiber patterns and geometries built using the 3D printing techniques developed in this work. We also test the parts for strength and illustrate the importance of spatially embedding fibers in specific patterns.Comment: 9 pages and 8 figure

Robot-aided selective embedding of a spatially steered fiber in polymer composite parts made using vat photopolymerization

Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composite (FRPC) parts are predominantly laminates, shells, or surfaces wound with 2+D fiber patterns even after the emergence of additive manufacturing. Making FRPC parts with embedded continuous fibers in 3D is not reported previously even though topology optimization demonstrates that such designs are optimal. Earlier attempts in 3D fiber reinforcement include making parts with channels into which fibers are inserted or coextruding fiber with resin. In this work, A Vat-Photopolymerization Machine, and a process for concurrent embedding of spatially steered continuous fibers inside the matrix is developed. A single continuous fiber was embedded spatially using a robot to gradually steer the fiber as the part is built layer upon layer. An example of a fiber embedded along a helix in a cylindrical matrix is included in this work. Furthermore, a hinge effect was demonstrated when a fiber was embedded at a place that has substantial bending about the axis of the fiber.Mechanical Engineerin

Automated inspection of aircraft parts using a modified ICP algorithm , H. N. V. Dutt and B.

The application of computer-aided inspection integrated with the coordinate measuring machine and laser scanners to inspect manufactured aircraft parts using robust registration of two-point datasets is a subject of active research in computational metrology. This paper presents a novel approach to automated inspection by matching shapes based on the modified iterative closest point (ICP) method to define a criterion for the acceptance or rejection of a part. This procedure improves upon existing methods by doing away with the following, viz., the need for constructing either a tessellated or smooth representation of the inspected part and requirements for an a priori knowledge of approximate registration and correspondence between the points representing the computer-aided design datasets and the part to be inspected. In addition, this procedure establishes a better measure for error between the two matched datasets. The use of localized region-based triangulation is proposed for tracking the error. The approach described improves the convergence of the ICP technique with a dramatic decrease in computational effort. Experimental results obtained by implementing this proposed approach using both synthetic and practical data show that the present method is efficient and robust. This method thereby validates the algorithm, and the examples demonstrate its potential to be used in engineering applications

Establishing Semantic Equivalences in Aircraft Ontology to Enable Semantic Interoperability

Part 6: PLM ToolsInternational audienceIn the use of ontologies to address semantic interoperability problems in PLM, either a lexicon or a list of synonyms of the terms in the domain are used to establish semantic mapping. This paper proposes a methodology to establish semantic equivalence of concepts with those in a given ontology based on some textual information about the new concept. This approach involves the classification of the information input into a structure form using natural language processing tools. Aircraft ontology available in literature, is taken as reference domain ontology for this purpose. Text input about the concept is parsed and the parts of speech (POS) tags are analyzed to obtain a structured representation. The structure is then compared to that in the domain ontology to decide if the input concept is part of the reference ontology and if so the concept it is equivalent to is identified. Results from an implementation of this procedure are shown and further work discussed

Interior Medial Axis Transform computation of 3D objects bound by free-form surfaces

This paper presents an algorithm for generating the Interior Medial Axis Transform (iMAT) of 3D objects with free-form boundaries. The algorithm proposed uses the exact representation of the part and generates an approximate rational spline description of the iMAT. The algorithm generates the iMAT by a tracing technique that marches along the object's boundary. The level of approximation is controlled by the choice of the step size in the tracing procedure. Criteria based on distance and local curvature of boundary entities are used to identify the junction points and the search for these junction points is done in an efficient way. The algorithm works for multiply-connected objects as well. Results of the implementation are provided. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Handling Sectional Views in Volume-based Approach to Automatically Construct 3D Solid from 2D Views

This paper presents an algorithm for solid model reconstruction from 2D sectional views based on volume-based approach. None of the existing work in automatic reconstruction from 2D orthographic views have addressed sectional views in detail. It is believed that the volume-based approach is better suited to handle different types of sectional views. The volume-based approach constructs the 3D solid by a boolean combination of elementary solids. The elementary solids are formed by sweep operation on loops identified in the input views. The only adjustment to be made for the presence of sectional views is in the identification of loops that would form the elemental solids. In the algorithm, the conventions of engineering drawing for sectional views, are used to identify the loops correctly. The algorithm is simple and intuitive in nature. Results have been obtained for full sections, offset sections and half sections. Future work will address other types of sectional views such as removed and revolved sections and broken-out sections

Associativity Between Feature Models Across Domains

Associativity between feature models implies the automatic updating of different feature models of a part after changes are made in one of its feature models. This is an important requirement in a distributed and concurrent design environment, where integrity of part geometry has to be maintained through changes made in different task domains. The proposed algorithm takes multiple feature models of apart as input and modifies other feature models to reflect the changes made to a feature in a feature model. The proposed algorithm updates feature volumes in a model that has not been edited and then classifies the updated volumes to obtain the updated feature model. The spatial arrangement of feature faces and adjacency relationship between features are used to isolate features in a view that are affected by the modification. Feature volumes are updated based on the classification of the feature volume of the modified feature with respect to feature volumes of the model being updated. The algorithm is capable of handling all types of feature modifications namely, feature deletion, feature creation, and changes to feature location and parameters. In contrast to current art in automatic updating of feature models, the proposed algorithm does not use an intermediate representation, does not re-interpret the feature model from a low level representation and handles interacting features. Results of implementation on typical cases are presented

Construction of solid model from measured point data

This paper describes an algorithm for constructing the solid model (boundary representation) from pout data measured from the faces of the object. The poznt data is assumed to be clustered for each face. This algorithm does not require any compuiier model of the part to exist and does not require any topological infarmation about the part to be input by the user. The property that a convex solid can be constructed uniquely from geometric input alone is utilized in the current work. Any object can be represented a5 a combznatzon of convex solids. The proposed algorithm attempts to construct convex polyhedra from the given input. The polyhedra so obtained are then checked against the input data for containment and those polyhedra, that satisfy this check, are combined (using boolean union operation) to realise the solid model. Results of implementation are presented