A novel adaptive slicing algorithm based on ameliorative area ratio and accurate cusp height for 3D printing
ISSN: 1355-2546
Article publication date: 16 September 2021
Issue publication date: 18 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Adaptive slicing is a key step in three-dimensional (3D) printing as it is closely related to the building time and the surface quality. This study aims to develop a novel adaptive slicing method based on ameliorative area ratio and accurate cusp height for 3D printing using stereolithography (STL) models.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed method consists of two stages. In the first stage, the STL model is sliced with constant layer thickness, where an improved algorithm for generating active triangular patches, the list is developed to preprocess the model faster. In the second stage, the model is first divided into several blocks according to the number of contours, then an axis-aligned bounding box-based contour matching algorithm and a polygons intersection algorithm are given to compare the geometric information between several successive layers, which will determine whether these layers can be merged to one.
Findings
Several benchmarks are applied to verify this new method. Developed method has also been compared with the uniform slicing method and two existing adaptive slicing methods to demonstrate its effectiveness in slicing.
Originality/value
Compared with other methods, the method leads to fewer layers whilst keeping the geometric error within a given threshold. It demonstrates that the proposed slicing method can reach a trade-off between the building time and the surface quality.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Compliance with ethical standards: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest that could have direct or potential influence or impart bias on the research reported in this paper. The research does not involve human participants and/or animals. Consent to submit the paper for publication has been received explicitly from all co-authors.
This work has been supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2020YFA0713700) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants Nos. 12171023 and 12001028).
Citation
Hu, Y., Jiang, X., Huo, G., Su, C., Li, H. and Zheng, Z. (2022), "A novel adaptive slicing algorithm based on ameliorative area ratio and accurate cusp height for 3D printing", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 453-465. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-12-2020-0319
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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