18-09-2014, 03:38 PM
Abstracts: Since then, Rapid Prototyping Technologies (RPT) have taken enormous strides. Nowadays, there are over 30 processes some of which are commercial, while others are under development in research laboratories. The accuracy has improved significantly, and the choice of materials is relatively large, to the extent that the term prototype is becoming misleading; the parts are more and more frequently being used for functional testing or to derive tools for pre-production testing. It is very likely that a new term, or one of the numerous other expressions that are floating around, will replace it in the future. Although the processes described here can differ significantly, e.g. by the use of materials other than photopolymers, the underlying theme is the same; they all build parts on a layer-by-layer basis. Such processes are generally known as Layered Manufacturing Techniques or Technologies (LMT). There are two RP technologies we will be discussing in this paper, namely, StereoLithography (SLA) and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS),Fused Deposition Modeling