{"id":11320,"date":"2012-09-19T10:40:41","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T14:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=11320"},"modified":"2012-09-19T10:40:41","modified_gmt":"2012-09-19T14:40:41","slug":"purdue-adobe-create-process-to-strengthen-3-d-print-objects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=11320","title":{"rendered":"Purdue, Adobe Create Process to Strengthen 3-D Print Objects"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bedrich<\/a>
Bedrich Benes (Mark Simons, Purdue University)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Computer scientists at Purdue University<\/a> in Indiana and computer software company Adobe Systems devised an automated process to add more robustness to objects created through three-dimensional printing. The researchers discussed their methods in a presentation last month at the SIGGRAPH 2012<\/a> conference in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

3-D printers create shapes by adding various materials layer-by-layer, including metals and plastic polymers, following detailed specifications. In the past few years, 3-D printing popularity has boomed because of advances in computer graphics and a dramatic reduction of the cost of 3-D printers.<\/p>\n

“Imagine you are a hobbyist and you have a vintage train model,” says Bedrich Benes<\/a> (pictured right), a computer graphics professor at Purdue. “Parts are no longer being manufactured, but their specifications can be downloaded from the Internet and you can generate them using a 3-D printer.”<\/p>\n

A common problem with 3-D printing, however, is the fragility of the printed objects. “I have an entire zoo of broken 3-D printed objects in my office,” Benes adds.<\/p>\n

To meet this problem, researchers at Purdue and Adobe’s Advanced Technology Labs<\/a> wrote software that automatically adds strength to objects before they are printed. The software analyzes the object’s structure with a mesh-based model of the item, finds parts with weaknesses, and selects one of the three possible solutions:<\/p>\n

– Increasing the thickness of key structural elements<\/p>\n

– Adding struts for support<\/p>\n

– Hollowing out overweight elements to reduce stress on structural elements<\/p>\n

In its analysis, the new tool also automatically identifies positions where a person is likely to grasp the object.\u00a0 The researchers say the software needs less computing power than traditional finite-element modeling tools, used for high-precision work such as designing jet engine turbine blades.<\/p>\n

“We not only make the objects structurally better, but we also make them much more inexpensive,” says Radomir Mech, senior research manager at Adobe Systems. “We have demonstrated a weight and cost savings of 80 percent.”<\/p>\n

The team plans to build on this research to better understand the way structural strength is influenced by the layered nature of 3-D-printed objects. The researchers may also expand their algorithms to include printed models with moving parts.<\/p>\n

The following video demonstrates the operation of the Purdue-Adobe software.<\/p>\n