Variants of Rapid Prototyping

A typical stereolithographic engine contains the following subsystems (21)  

Fused deposition Solid ground curing Stereolithography 

Horizontally movable recoater blade to create a uniform thick layer of liquid, 

A variant of such a process is the so-called SLA 1 system (23). Here, a computer-controlled, focused UV laser is scanned over the top surface of a bath of a photopolymerizable liquid polymer to selectively polymerize the polymer where the laser beam strikes it, and thereby form a first solid polymeric layer at the top surface of the bath. 

This solid layer is then lowered into the bath such that a fresh layer of liquid pol mer covers the solid layer. The laser polymerization process is then repeated to generate a second solid polymeric layer, and so on, until a plurality of superimposed solid polymeric layers complete the desired article. 

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