• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.2409-2414
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• 2002

The surfaces of prototypes become rough due to the stair-stepping which is the inevitable phenomenon in the Rapid Prototypes are not used only for the verification of feature. The grinding, coating, or the composition of them is a main operation in post-processing in which lots of costs and long build time are needed. The solution is proposed to increase the efficiency of rapid prototyping by minimizing or removing the composition of them is a main operation in post-processing in which lots of costs and long build time are needed. the solution is proposed to increase the efficiency of rapid prototyping by minimizing or removing the regions for post-processing. the factors to cause the surface roughness and their effects are analyzed through the experiments. Software modules are developed to predict the surface roughness of each face in the prototyping with the result. An experimental compensation method is developed to apply the modules to various RP equipments, materials and build styles. The build direction is searched with use of genetic algorithm to maximize the total areas of the surface of which roughness is better than the user-defined value.