Build-to-last strength to weight 3D printed objects

• Published in: ACM transactions on graphics Vol. 33; no. 4; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Lu, Lin, Sharf, Andrei, Zhao, Haisen, Wei, Yuan, Fan, Qingnan, Chen, Xuelin, Savoye, Yann, Tu, Changhe, Cohen-Or, Daniel, Chen, Baoquan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.07.2014
• Subjects: 3D printing; Construction; Cost engineering; Optimization; Strength; Stresses; Tessellation; Three dimensional
• ISSN: 0730-0301; 1557-7368
• DOI: 10.1145/2601097.2601168

The emergence of low-cost 3D printers steers the investigation of new geometric problems that control the quality of the fabricated object. In this paper, we present a method to reduce the material cost and weight of a given object while providing a durable printed model that is resistant to impact and external forces. We introduce a hollowing optimization algorithm based on the concept of honeycomb-cells structure. Honeycombs structures are known to be of minimal material cost while providing strength in tension. We utilize the Voronoi diagram to compute irregular honeycomb-like volume tessellations which define the inner structure. We formulate our problem as a strength--to--weight optimization and cast it as mutually finding an optimal interior tessellation and its maximal hollowing subject to relieve the interior stress. Thus, our system allows to build-to-last 3D printed objects with large control over their strength-to-weight ratio and easily model various interior structures. We demonstrate our method on a collection of 3D objects from different categories. Furthermore, we evaluate our method by printing our hollowed models and measure their stress and weights.