Articolo in rivista, 2017, ENG, 10.1016/j.apm.2017.02.004

A level set based method for fixing overhangs in 3D printing

Cacace, Simone; Cristiani, Emiliano; Rocchi, Leonardo

Dipartimento di Matematica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy; Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy; School of Mathematics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

3D printers based on the additive manufacturing technology create objects layer-by-layer dropping fused material. As a consequence, strong overhangs cannot be printed because the new-come material does not find a suitable support over the last deposed layer. In these cases, one can add support structures (scaffolds) which make the object printable, to be removed at the end. In this paper, we propose a level set based method to create object-dependent support structures, specifically conceived to reduce both the amount of additional material and the printing time. We also review some open problems about 3D printing which can be of interests for the mathematical community.

Applied mathematical modelling 44 , pp. 446–455

Keywords

Level set method, Hamilton-Jacobi equations, Support structure, Scaffolding, Additive manufacturing, Fused deposition modelling

CNR authors

Cristiani Emiliano

CNR institutes

IAC – Istituto per le applicazioni del calcolo "Mauro Picone"