A decomposition-based approach to layered manufacturing

Abstract

Layered Manufacturing allows physical prototypes of 3D parts to be built directly from their computer models, as a stack of 2D layers. This paper proposes a new approach, which decomposes the model into a small number of pieces, builds each separately, and glues them together to generate the prototype. This allows large models to be built in parallel and also reduces the need for so-called support structures. Decomposition algorithms that minimize support requirements are given for convex and non-convex polyhedra. Experiments, on convex polyhedra, show that the approach can reduce support requirements substantially.