GEOMETRIC AND COMPUTATIONAL ASPECTS OF MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

A survey is presented on the geometric and computational aspects of mo lding, gravity casting, stereolithography, and laser sculpting. Emphas is is placed on the two fundamental questions that arise concerning ev ery type of manufacturing process: (a) Given an object, can it be cons tructed using a particular process? (b) Given that an object can be bu ilt using a particular process, what is the best way to construct the object? The techniques surveyed in this paper answer the above questio ns for several mathematical (geometric) models of the actual manufactu ring processes used in industry.