An Efficient Method for Detecting Packaging Supporting Space

This paper presents an efficient method to generate packaging space that can be used to create molded foam. This method first reduces the number of facets presenting the product and then detects heights of supporting lines from an evenly spaced mesh grid on the bottom space of a pre-defined bounding box. The height of each supporting line is further relaxed and smoothed to form the final supporting surface. Based on the supporting surface, an STL format is created so it can be fabricated using RP machines. Three examples are presented to demonstrate this method.Copyright © 2006 by ASME