Implementation of algorithms for deciding castability

Abstract

In manufacturing an object by casting, molten liquid is poured into a cavity formed by two cast parts. After the liquid is hardened, the two cast parts retract in opposite directions and the object is separated from the mold. There are two major geometric questions. First, how to decide whether a given direction is a feasible casting direction? Second, how to find feasible casting directions? In this thesis, we implemented algorithms for solving these two questions and study them experimentally. The first algorithm verifies the feasibility of a given casting direction. The second algorithm speeds up the search for feasible casting directions by restricting the search space using the object geometry. Our implementation is based on CGAL and LEDA.

Date of Award	2001
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology