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Stress relief: improving structural strength of 3D printable objects

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Radomír MěchAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), Volume 31, Issue 4

Article No.: 48, Pages 1 - 11

https://doi.org/10.1145/2185520.2185544

Published: 01 July 2012 Publication History

Abstract

The use of 3D printing has rapidly expanded in the past couple of years. It is now possible to produce 3D-printed objects with exceptionally high fidelity and precision. However, although the quality of 3D printing has improved, both the time to print and the material costs have remained high. Moreover, there is no guarantee that a printed model is structurally sound. The printed product often does not survive cleaning, transportation, or handling, or it may even collapse under its own weight. We present a system that addresses this issue by providing automatic detection and correction of the problematic cases. The structural problems are detected by combining a lightweight structural analysis solver with 3D medial axis approximations. After areas with high structural stress are found, the model is corrected by combining three approaches: hollowing, thickening, and strut insertion. Both detection and correction steps are repeated until the problems have been eliminated. Our process is designed to create a model that is visually similar to the original model but possessing greater structural integrity.

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Cited By

Pan WChen XLiu WQiao LKuang HLu W(2025)Optimized printing orientation determination for improving the stiffness of as-printed handlesRapid Prototyping Journal10.1108/RPJ-07-2024-0304Online publication date: 12-Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-07-2024-0304
Asghar ARashid MHanif MBoukhris IChen ZSaqib MArshad QRosaiah PAli SHussain I(2025)Advancements in MXene-based 3D printing-based technologiesChemical Engineering Journal10.1016/j.cej.2025.159811(159811)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.159811
Montes Maestre JDu YHinchet RCoros SThomaszewski B(2024)FlexScale: Modeling and Characterization of Flexible Scaled SheetsACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/365817543:4(1-14)Online publication date: 19-Jul-2024
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Stress relief: improving structural strength of 3D printable objects

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cover image ACM Transactions on Graphics

ACM Transactions on Graphics Volume 31, Issue 4

July 2012

935 pages

ISSN:0730-0301

EISSN:1557-7368

DOI:10.1145/2185520

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2012 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 01 July 2012

Published in TOG Volume 31, Issue 4

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Cited By

Pan WChen XLiu WQiao LKuang HLu W(2025)Optimized printing orientation determination for improving the stiffness of as-printed handlesRapid Prototyping Journal10.1108/RPJ-07-2024-0304Online publication date: 12-Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-07-2024-0304
Asghar ARashid MHanif MBoukhris IChen ZSaqib MArshad QRosaiah PAli SHussain I(2025)Advancements in MXene-based 3D printing-based technologiesChemical Engineering Journal10.1016/j.cej.2025.159811(159811)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.159811
Montes Maestre JDu YHinchet RCoros SThomaszewski B(2024)FlexScale: Modeling and Characterization of Flexible Scaled SheetsACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/365817543:4(1-14)Online publication date: 19-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3658175
Yu DXiao CLau MFu H(2024)Sketch2Stress: Sketching With Structural Stress AwarenessIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2023.334211930:10(6851-6865)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2024
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Dong YZuo QGu XYuan WZhao ZDong ZBo LHuang Q(2024)GPLD3D: Latent Diffusion of 3D Shape Generative Models by Enforcing Geometric and Physical Priors2024 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)10.1109/CVPR52733.2024.00014(56-66)Online publication date: 16-Jun-2024
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Singh SSingh AKapil SDas M(2024)Generation of continuous and sparse space filling toolpath with tailored density for additive manufacturing of biomimeticsComputer-Aided Design10.1016/j.cad.2024.103718173(103718)Online publication date: Aug-2024
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Schmeier GTröger CKwon YSachau D(2023)Predicting Failure of Additively Manufactured Specimens with HolesMaterials10.3390/ma1606229316:6(2293)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16062293
Lipkowitz GKrishna NCoates IShaqfeh EDesimone J(2023)Printing atom-efficiently: faster fabrication of farther unsupported overhangs by fluid dynamics simulationProceedings of the 8th ACM Symposium on Computational Fabrication10.1145/3623263.3623354(1-14)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2023
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Zhang ZBrandt CJouve JWang YChen TPauly MPanetta J(2023)Computational Design of Flexible Planar MicrostructuresACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/361839642:6(1-16)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2023
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