Developing the optimized control scheme for digital light processing 3D printing by combining numerical simulation and machine learning-guided temperature prediction

Digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing has attracted significant attention for its rapid printing speed, high accuracy, and diverse applications. However, the continuous DLP printing process releases substantial heat, resulting in a swift temperature rise in the curing area, which may lead to printing failures. Due to the lack of effective means to measure real-time temperature changes of the curing surface during continuous DLP 3D printing, the prevailing approach is to predict temperature variations during printing via numerical simulation. Nevertheless, temperature prediction methods relying solely on numerical simulation tend to be slow and overlook heat exchange dynamics during printing, potentially resulting in prediction inaccuracies, particularly for complex models. To address these issues, this paper proposes a method to combine numerical simulation and a machine learning approach for temperature prediction in the DLP 3D printing process, along with a printing control scheme generation method. Firstly, the ${\left(\text{m}+\text{n}\right)}^{th}$ order autocatalytic kinetic model considering the light intensity and the Beer–Lambert law are employed to formulate the heat calculation equation for the photopolymer resin curing reaction. Subsequently, a heat exchange calculation equation is established based on Fourier heat conduction law and Newton’s cooling equation. A numerical simulation model for temperature changes during the printing process is then developed by integrating the heat calculation equation, heat exchange calculation equation, and measurement data from Photo-DSC. Furthermore, a temperature measurement device for the printing process is designed to validate the accuracy of the numerical simulation. Following this, an improved Long Short-term Memory (LSTM) network is proposed, using temperature change data generated by the numerical simulation model to train the network for rapid ($2\times {10}^{-4}$ $\text{s}/\text{layer}$) prediction of temperature changes during printing. Finally, aiming for the shortest printing time, an optimized control scheme planning algorithm and a target function are designed based on the model’s temperature change data and the monomer’s flash point to ensure the temperature remains below this threshold. This algorithm can automatically generate the optimal printing control scheme for any model. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed temperature prediction method can predict temperature variation accurately. Based on this, the generated printing control scheme can guarantee efficient and high-quality manufacturing for anymodel.