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Rapid Prototyping for Assembly Training and Validation

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Preprints of the 15th IFAC Symposium on
Information Control Problems in Manufacturing
May 11-13, 2015. Ottawa, Canada

Rapid Prototyping for Assembly Training and Validation

Ali AHMAD*. Saber DARMOUL**. Wadea AMEEN***

Mustufa H. ABIDI***. Abdulrahman M. AL-AHMARI***

* Department of Engineering Technology, Northwestern State University,

Natchitoches, LA, USA (e-mail: ahmada@nsula.edu)
** Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University,
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, (e-mail: sdarmoul@ksu.edu.sa)

*** Advanced Manufacturing Institute, College of Engineering, King Saud University,

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, (e-mail: wadeaameen@gmail.com, mabidi@ksu.edu.sa, alahmari@ksu.edu.sa)

Abstract: Rapid prototyping refers to a group of techniques that are used to fabricate a model of a
physical part layer-by layer directly from a computer aided design file. It has been widely used in several
domains to accelerate, check and validate product design, and implementation of product. However, little
work has been dedicated to the use of rapid prototyping technology in manufacturing assembly validation
and training. This paper presents guidelines for using rapid prototyping in manufacturing assembly. A
case study is designed to validate the design and implementation of an assembly product made of sub-
parts, and to validate the assembly and human operator training processes. Rapid prototyping technology
is applied successfully for assembly process planning.
Keywords: Rapid prototyping, 3D printing, Fused Deposition Modeling, Assembly

1. INTRODUCTION RP has been mainly used to obtain prototypes to check the
validity of a design (Dheeraj, 2012; Onuh and Yusuf, 1999;
Manufacturing assembly refers to the process of putting Series, 2009). Little interest has been given to consider RP
manufactured parts together to make a complete product such for assembly training, and to validate feasibility of assembly
as a machine or an electronic circuit (Kalpakjian and Schmid, (not to validate each single part prototype alone).
2001). Globalization of markets places increased emphasis on
product and process validation and requires efficient and Existing research focused on using engineering drawings and
effective product design changes (Maropoulos and Ceglarek, digital models for assembly training, and validation (Seth et
2010). Assembly operations are a key component in modern al, 2011). Some of the limitations of using these traditional
manufacturing systems and assembly processes have a direct assembly-training tools include; physical interaction is not
influence on product quality, time to market, and cost; thus, present, force feedback is missing, and physical properties
they require special validation (Seth et al., 2011). Process of such as friction, gravity are not present. These limitations can
assembly validation includes: 1) a human operator can be overcome by using RP models.
assemble the part or component or not, 2) a human operator
can disassemble the part or component or not for In this work, the RP technology is used for assembly
maintenance, 3) the difficulty of the assembly/disassembly planning and a case study is developed to illustrate the
process, and 4) the time to complete assembly (Gomez and benefits of using RP models in assembly training, and
Zachmann, 1999, Abidi et al., 2013). validation.

Rapid prototyping (RP) is the technology that produces
physical models from 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD)
data directly (Dheeraj, 2012). Nowadays, RP has been used
in many fields (medical, product development, engineering),
since it has a capability to produce a physical model for any
geometrical complexity in a short time using the additive
manufacturing approach (Novakova-Marcincinova and Kuric,
2012). These technologies give the designer the ability to
check the shape of a product, validate the fitness of assembly
parts, and test the function of the produced model. RP
technologies vary in material, building time, model cost and
model quality (Series, 2009).
2. RAPID PROTOTYPING: AN OVERVIEW
Manufacturing technologies can be classified as formative,
subtractive, or additive. Existing manufacturing technology
either falls into one of these categories, or is a hybrid process
that uses more than one. RP is the automatic fabrication of
physical models using additive manufacturing technology
(Onuh and Yusuf, 1999).
There are many ways for classifying RP technologies. One
way to classify RP systems is by the initial form of material
used to build the prototype. RP systems can be categorized
into liquid-based such as Stereolithography (Stl), solid-based

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such as Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) and Laminated 3. CASE STUDY

Object Manufacturing(LOM), and powder based such as
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Three-Dimensional Printing In this work, a Reciprocating gizmo mechanism assembly is
(3DP), and Electron Beam Melting (EBM; Series, 2009; considered as a case study. It is used for converting the input
Pandey, 2010). (the lowest gear wheel pair) rotary motion to output linear
motion. This assembly model was selected because of its
RP was initially used to produce physical 3D models. Today, complexity due to number of parts and the similarity between
they are used in a wide range of applications, such as Product the parts increases the difficulty of assembly furthermore.
Design (Mihaiela et al., 2009), Ergonomic Evaluation Figure (2) shows the assembly model.
(Yagnik, 2014), Customized Prostheses (Farias et al., 2013),
Medical Training (Abdel-Sayed and von Segesser, 2011), and
are even used to produce final product (Novakova-
Marcincinova and Kuric, 2012). In product design, RP is
employed to discover errors or misfits in the design of a part
that can lead to savings in time and cost. The medical field
has benefited from using RP to build human implants
accurately and quickly, and using RP models to train cardio-
vascular surgical procedures.

Mechanical RP scale models enable visualizing complex

shapes, which cannot be seen or understood on conventional
engineering drawings, and enable the ability to physically
interact with them to verify form and function (Dheeraj
Nimawat 2012). RP was used in engineering projects to help
students produce models of real-world objects (Diegel et al.,
2006). RP enabled engineers to identify and resolve problems
that could be missed when using digital models. In
manufacturing assembly, RP allowed product development
teams to understand how the model components need to fit
together during manufacturing (Yagnik, 2014). Despite the
wide variety of applications of RP, yet another under- Fig. 2. Reciprocating Gizmo Mechanism
explored application is to use RP for assembly training, and
to validate assembly operations. 3.1 Design and Fabrication of Reciprocating Gizmo Model
The basic steps for design and fabrication of the model are
In this work, RP models were fabricated using Fused described as follows:
Deposition Modelling (FDM; Novakova-Marcincinova and
Kuric, 2012). The principle of the FDM is based on surface  CAD model: The various components of the
chemistry, thermal energy, and layer manufacturing reciprocating mechanism are designed and modelled
technology. The FDM uses Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene using CAD software i.e. SolidWorks® (SolidWorks,
(ABS) plastic in filament form, which is melted using a 2014). Figure 3 shows the CAD model of one of the
specially designed nozzle head and extruded to build the component of the assembly.
physical model. As it is extruded, it is cooled and thus
solidifies to form the model. The model is built layer by
layer, like the other RP systems (Bagsik and Schöppner,
2011), (John Michael Brock, 2000) see Figure 1.

Fig. 1. Schematic of Fused Deposition Modelling (adapted

from Yagnik, 2014) Fig. 3. CAD Model of a Component of Assembly

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 Converting the CAD data to STL format: The various

CAD packages apply a number of different algorithms to
represent solid objects, therefore, the Standard
Triangulation Language (STL) format has been adopted
as the standard for the rapid prototyping industry to
establish the consistency. Thus, the solid parts are
converted into STL format using CAD package. Figure 4
shows the STL model of the component. Then, Magics®
(Magics, 2014) software is used for checking, editing,
and fixing the errors of the STL files.

Fig. 6. Dimension Elite FDM Machine

 Post processing: This step is necessary for removing

Fig. 4. STL Model of the Component
 Slicing the STL file and generation of a support
structure: CatalystEX® (Catalyst, 2014) software is then
used to slice the STL file into horizontal thin cross
sections layers after the part is oriented for the optimum
build position, and any necessary support structures are
automatically detected and generated, see Figure 5.
the support material and enhancing the surfaces of the
model. In this work Ultrasonic device with chemical
solvent dissolution is used for post processing step.
Table 1 presents the details of fabricating RP model of the
assembly. It includes numbers of parts, required ABS
material and support materials, and fabrication time for each
part.
Table 1. Details of fabricated assembly model

Figure 7 shows the final fabricated RP models of the

Fig. 5. Part Slicing of the Component for RP Fabrication
assembly case study.

 Fabricating the model: In this step Dimension Elite

machine from Stratasys® Company (see Figure 6) which
works under FDM technology is used to fabricate the
assembly model parts. The generated slices are
constructed in the machine by building one layer at a
time upon others from ABS thermoplastic material. It
took 28.58 hours to produce all these components on the
FDM machine.

Fig. 7. Fabricated RP models of Assembly Components

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3.2 Issues in RP Fabricated Models:

The main issues identified during the case study for using RP
fabricated models in assemble planning include:
1. Parts Shrinkage: The fabricated parts shrunk with a very
small dimension. Therefore, the axels were not fit properly
into the corresponding holes. Therefore, with several
experimental trials, it was found out that the dimensions in
the CAD model should be modified by +/-0.2 mm
accordingly.
2. Scale difference in components: In the assembly, if some
components are too big, and other are very small like
washers, screws etc., then if we fabricate a scale down
assembly model of a large component may cause an issue,
and it is found out that, for proper production of RP models, Fig. 8. Step 7 of RP Fabricated Parts Assembly
it is important to maintain scale relationships.
3.3 Assembly process steps:
There were 27 components in the assembly models. The
fabricated parts were used for assembly process planning in
which the parts joined (direct fitting joining type) with others
to construct the complete reciprocating mechanism model.
The parts assemble according to correct sequence to guaranty
the balance of assembly model that is not necessary during
assembly process using CAD software see Figures 8 and 9.
Therefore, RP fabricated assembly process follows the real
world physical laws that are not present in the computer
aided design models. The assembly steps that were followed
to achieve the assembly process are as follow:

Step 1: Install brackets (long, medium and small) on the

correct position.

Step 2: Fixing cog wheel 1&2 on axel center.

Step 3: Assemble axel center rod with vertical rod with small
brackets.
Step 4: Fix horizontal rods and cog wheel 3 & 4 on axel mid-
1 and whole axel.
Step 5: Assemble axel mid 1 with vertical rod and whole
axel with medium brackets.
Step 6: Fixing horizontal rods 3 & 4 and cog wheel 5 & 6 on
axel mid 2 and slider.
Step 7: Assemble axel mid2 with vertical rod and slider on
half axel.
Step 8: Assemble slider with the longest bracket.
Step 9: Fixing the smalls half axel (1-4) through verticals
rods with cog wheels.
Fig. 9. Reciprocating Assembly Model in CAD Environment
In the CAD environment, the assembly model does not
follow physical laws of nature; therefore, it is not necessary
there to follow the actual assembly steps. Figure 9 shows that
even the cog wheels are not supported in CAD environment,
still the assembly does not falls down, which is not possible
with RP fabricated assembly model. Even if the physical laws
are incorporated in the CAD systems, still a sense they are far
from realism. This indicates the utility of using rapid
prototyping in validating assembly operations. Figure 10
shows the final assembly of the RP fabricated reciprocating
gizmo mechanism.
Several factors which needs to be taken care in case of RP
fabricated parts are, surface quality, tolerances to critical
dimensions, minimum thickness of the components to name a
few.

The assembly process is carried out by two persons and it

takes 10 minutes approximately.

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Fig. 10. RP Fabricated Reciprocating Gizmo Mechanism
4. DISCUSSION, CONLUSIONS, AND FUTURE WORK
In RP model, it is easy to discover the mistakes in assembly
by validating the assembly process that is not easy in digital
assembly process. Compared with computer model the use of
RP in assembly process planning results in better
understanding of the sequence (steps) of assembly, the way
of parts joining (plotting, bonding, pressing, etc.), the number
of persons required to carry out the assembly process, and
actual assembly time. A case study was used to show the
benefits of using RP fabricated components in assembly
process planning. The major advantage of using RP for
assembly process is that a person can interact with the real
world objects. Several issues related with RP of assembly
models such as shrinkage compensation and scaling are
identified and handled successfully in the case study. This
work extends the research in RP field, and is in agreement
with past literature (Dheeraj, 2012; Maropoulos et al., 2010).
In this research work, the use of RP as a tool for
manufacturing assembly training and validation is
successfully implemented. It was found out that RP in
assembly process offer many advantages such as physical
touch, actual tolerances, sequence of assembly steps, etc. that
are missing in other methods.
A user-based study will be carried out in the future; in which
different persons will be trained, using various training
medium (such as, conventional 2D drawings, virtual reality
environments, etc.). Then they will perform the assembly of
an actual product. Training effectiveness and transfer of
training will be assessed. In addition, the limitation of the
digital assembly process or other multimedia support in terms
of cost and training time will be further investigated to
support positioning and the profitability of physical
prototyping technology.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by NSTIP strategic technologies
Program Number (12-INF2573-02) in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. The authors would like to thank the Advanced
Manufacturing Institute, King Saud University for providing
resources to complete this work.
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