Build Style Decision Support for Stereolithography

When building parts in a stereolithography apparatus (SLA), the user is faced with many decisions regarding how the part will be built. The quality of the build can be controlled by the user via changing one of several build style variables, including part orientation, cross sectional layer thickness, and laser hatch density. A user will probably have preferences for the part build (Le., accuracy or speed), but may not understand how to vary the build style variables to produce the desired results. A method based on response surface methodology and multi-objective decision support is described in this paper for relating build goals to three build style variables, and the use ofthese relationships in providing decision support for building a part on a SLA. The method is applied to the build style of a circuit breaker handle.