A Parallel Slicing Algorithm for Solid Freeform Fabrication Processes

Slicing can accountfor more than 60% ofthe time to prepare apartforbuildingon astereolithographic apparatus. To improve the preparation time, aparallel slicing algorithm was developed. The algorithm was run on aButterfly GP1000 using 2,4,8, 16, and 32processors and superlinear speedup was observed due to high memory requirements. The parallel algorithm can reduce slice times by up to 92% on 16 concurrentprocessors as compared to a single processor.