Curved-layered material extrusion modeling for thin-walled parts by a 5-axis machine. Issue 7 (19th July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Feng, Xiaojing; Cui, Bin; Liu, Yaxiong; Li, Lianggang; Shi, Xiaojun; Zhang, Xiaodong
• Is Part Of: Rapid prototyping journal. Volume 27:Issue 7(2021)
• Page Start: 1378
• Page End: 1387
• Publication Date: 2021-07-19
• Subjects: Additive manufacturing -- Curved-layered manufacturing algorithm -- Five-axis machine -- Material extrusion modeling; Engineering design -- Periodicals; 620.004205
• DOI: 10.1108/RPJ-11-2020-0272
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1355-2546

Abstract

Abstract : Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to solve the problems of poor mechanical properties, high surface roughness and waste support materials of thin-walled parts fabricated by flat-layered additive manufacturing process. Design/methodology/approach: This paper proposes a curved-layered material extrusion modeling process with a five-axis motion mechanism. This process has advantages of the platform rotating, non-support printing and three-dimensional printing path. First, the authors present a curved-layered algorithm by offsetting the bottom surface into a series of conformal surfaces and a toolpath generation algorithm based on the geodesic distance field in each conformal surface. Second, they introduce a parallel five-axis printing machine consisting of a printing head fixed on a delta-type manipulator and a rotary platform on a spherical parallel machine. Findings: Mechanical experiments show the failure force of the five-axis printed samples is 153% higher than that of the three-axis printed samples. Forming experiments show that the surface roughness significantly decreases from 42.09 to 18.31 µm, and in addition, the material consumption reduces by 42.90%. These data indicate the curved-layered algorithm and five-axis motion mechanism in this paper could effectively improve mechanical properties and the surface roughness of thin-walled parts, and realize non-support printing. These methods also have reference value for other additive manufacturing processes. Originality/value: Previous researchers mostly focus on printing simple shapes such as arch or "T"-like shape. In contrast, this study sets out to explore the algorithm and benefits of modeling thin-walled parts by a five-axis machine. Several validated models would allow comparability in five-axis printing.