Generic build time estimation model for parts produced by SLS

摘要

Rapid Prototyping (RP) has evolved into Additive Manufacturing (AM) and plays an important role in numerous application domains. Cost and lead time of AM become significant factors affecting the comparison between AM and other traditional processes. The accuracy of build time estimation directly affects the cost estimation for AM production. This paper introduces an analytical method to build time estimation for parts, which takes real AM production context that was usually neglected by former models into consideration. To illustrate the proposed method, an analytical generic build time estimation model is constructed for SLS process with a simple calculation example. The results reflect the importance of production context for the build time estimation.