CofiFab: Coarse-to-fine fabrication of large 3D objects

Song, Peng; Deng, Bailin; Wang, Ziqi; Dong, Zhichao; Li, Wei; Fu, Chi-Wing; Liu, Ligang

Abstract

This paper presents CofiFab, a coarse-to-fine 3D fabrication solution, which combines 3D printing and 2D laser cutting for cost-effective fabrication of large objects at lower cost and higher speed. Our key approach is to first build coarse internal base structures within the given 3D object using laser-cutting, and then attach thin 3D-printed parts, as an external shell, onto the base to recover the fine surface details. CofiFab achieves this with three novel algorithmic components. First, we formulate an optimization model to compute fabricatable polyhedrons of maximized volume, as the geometry of the internal base. Second, we devise a new interlocking scheme to tightly connect laser-cut parts into a strong internal base, by iteratively building a network of nonorthogonal interlocking joints and locking parts around polyhedral corners. Lastly, we also optimize the partitioning of the external object shell into 3D-printable parts, while saving support material and avoiding overhangs. These components also consider aesthetics, stability and balancing in addition to cost saving. As a result, CofiFab can efficiently produce large objects by assembly. To evaluate its effectiveness, we fabricate objects of varying shapes and sizes, where CofiFab significantly improves compared to previous methods.

Citation

Song, P., Deng, B., Wang, Z., Dong, Z., Li, W., Fu, C., & Liu, L. (2016). CofiFab: Coarse-to-fine fabrication of large 3D objects. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 35(4), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1145/2897824.2925876

• Journal Article Type: Conference Paper
• Acceptance Date: Mar 20, 2016
• Publication Date: Jul 11, 2016
• Deposit Date: Apr 28, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 11, 2016
• Journal: ACM transactions on graphics
• Print ISSN: 0730-0301
• Electronic ISSN: 1557-7368
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 35
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: ARTN 45
• Pages: 1-11
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2897824.2925876
• Keywords: 3D printing, Laser cutting, Assembly, Interlocking
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/437345
• Publisher URL: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2897824.2925876
• Additional Information: © ACM, 2016. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in ACM Transactions on Graphics, {VOL35, ISS4, (2016)} http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2897824.2925876