Integration of rapid prototyping technology into FMS for agile manufacturing

The problem of inaccuracies of models manufactured by layer manufacturing technology has greatly limited its intended level of exploitations especially in the down‐stream applications and integration into the FMS and CIM. The principles of cellular manufacturing together with various examples of its application and benefits are well documented. Increased competition combined with customer demand for quality, speed, product performance and lower costs are putting an ever‐greater burden on manufacturing. Not only do products need to be launched faster than ever, but also manufacturing needs to be flexible in rapidly retuning its facilities. The move to cellular manufacturing, TQM or CIM or other techniques alone is thus no longer enough. Instead, the challenge is increasingly one of compressing the time it takes to continually “re‐invent” the manufacturing system in order to meet the prevailing demands of the market place. This paper presents a comparative study on the effects of hatch patterns on stereolithography models using epoxy‐based resin in a CIM environment. A unique experimental investigation has been carried out with two new hatch patterns, Divergent Star‐weave, (DSW), and Diagonal Divergent Star‐weave (DDSW), which have significantly improved the stereolithography product quality, and reduced lead time thus yielding a significant tool in agile manufacturing.