Abstract
Abstract
At the completion of building an object in laminated object manufacturing rapid prototyping (LOM-RP), a block with the required object inside is obtained. The remaining stock inside and surrounding the object is in the form of tiny tiles. The operator ‘decubes’ these tiles using sharp tools and extracts the object. After cutting the object contours in each laminate during the building process, the remaining sheet is cut into square grids that grow into these tiles. This grid cutting method, though very simple and innovative, is very inefficient due to poor cutting efficiency and a long decubing time. In this paper, a novel method is presented for extracting the object that is analogous with the extraction of a casting from its permanent mould. This method has a very high cutting efficiency and simplifies and speeds up decubing. The concepts of convex hull and visibility are utilized in the algorithm.