-
1/10 Scale Functional Model
The Stereolithography department is responsible for the manufacture of the prototypes and new design details and assemblies associated with all the company’s product range.
Stereolithography, or SLA, produces three Dimensional (3D) rapid prototype models a layer at a time by using the light of an ultra violet laser to trace the cross sectional slice information of
the 3D CAD data onto the surface of a container of liquid photopolymer. Successive layers are cured to grow the model in the Z axis.
The primary use of Additive Layer Manufacturing is to rapidly make a prototype for testing and communication purposes. Prototypes dramatically improves communication because most people, including engineers, find 3D objects easier to understand than two-dimensional (2D) drawings.
Improved understanding leads to substantial cost and time savings. On a complex product effective communication is especially important in the era of concurrent engineering.
Many different sources of 3D CAD can be converted into the .stl (stereolithography file) used in the manufacture of rapid models.
It is therefore possible to combine a mix of data sets to make an assembly and check for conformity between different CAD systems.
