Feature based fabrication in layered manufacturing

To address the conflicting requirements between holding specified surface q uality and decreasing build time in layered manufacturing, we present a fea ture-based fabrication methodology whereby the curvature effects are locali zed within each decomposed volume. However, staircase interaction between t he boundaries of the decomposed neighboring volumes creates geometric incom patibility for deposition, which further results in undesired material prop erties. This paper proposes a novel concept, feature interaction volume, to eliminate the staircase interaction. Based on this concept, a feature base d volume decomposition algorithm is developed. This algorithm enables each decomposed volume to be fabricated independently and compatibly. Implementa tion and example results are also presented.