Slicing strategy and process of laser direct metal deposition (DMD) of the inclined thin-walled part under open-loop control

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to improve the dimensional accuracy of inclined thin-walled parts fabricated by laser direct metal deposition (DMD) under an open-loop control system. Design/methodology/approach In this study, a novel method of the adaptive slicing method and DMD process with feedback adjustment of deposition height has been developed to successively fabricate complex inclined thin-walled square tube elbow parts. The defocus amount was used as a variable to the matching between the deposition thickness and the adaptive slicing height. Findings The low relative error of dimensional accuracy between experimental and designed parts shows that the matching of the single-layer deposition thickness and the adaptive slicing height can be realized by optimizing the defocusing amount. The negative feedback of the thin-wall part height can be achieved when the defocus amount and the z-axis increment are less than deposition thickness. The improvement of dimensional accuracy of inclined thin-walled parts is also attributed to the optimized scanning strategy. Practical implications The slicing method and deposition process can provide technical guidance for other additive manufacturing (AM) systems to fabricate metal thin-walled parts with high dimensional accuracy because the feedback control of deposition height can be realized only by the optimized process. Originality/value This study provides a novel adaptive slice method and corresponding the deposition process, and expands the slicing method of AM metal parts.

Volumetric adaptive slicing of manifold mesh for rapid prototyping based on relative volume error

Purpose Compared with cusp height and area deviation ratio, volume error (VE) caused by the layer height could represent the stair-case effect more comprehensively. The proposed relative volume error (RVE)-based adaptive slicing method takes VE rather than cusp height as slicing criteria, which can improve part surface quality for functionalized additive manufacturing. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a volumetric adaptive slicing method of manifold mesh for rapid prototyping based on RVE. The pre-height sequences of manifold mesh are first preset to reduce the SE by dividing the whole layer sequence into several parts. A breadth-first search-based algorithm has been developed to generate a solid voxelization to get VE. A new parameter RVE is proposed to evaluate the VE caused by the sequence of the layer positions. The RVE slicing is conducted by iteratively adjusting the layer height sequences under different constraint conditions. Findings Three manifold models are used to verify the proposed method. Compared with uniform slicing with 0.2 mm layer height, cusp height-based method and area deviation-based method, the standard deviations of RVE of all three models are improved under the proposed method. The surface roughness measured by the confocal laser scanning microscope proves that the proposed RVE method can greatly improve part surface quality by minimizing RVE. Originality/value This paper proposes an RVE-based method to balance the surface quality and print time. RVE could be calculated by voxelized parts with required accuracy at a very fast speed by parallel.

Development of a deposition framework for implementation of a region-based adaptive slicing strategy in arc-based metal additive manufacturing

Purpose This study aims to develop and demonstrate a deposition framework for the implementation of a region-based adaptive slicing strategy for the Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding-based additive manufacturing system. The present study demonstrates a deposition framework for implementing a novel region-based adaptive slicing strategy termed as Fast Interior and Accurate Exterior with Constant Layer Height (FIAECLH). Design/methodology/approach The mentioned framework has been developed by performing experiments using the design of experiments and analyzing the experimental data. Analysis results have been used to obtain the mathematical function to integrate customization in the process. The paper, in the end, demonstrates the FIAECLH framework for implementing region-based adaptive slicing strategy on the hardware level. Findings The study showcase a new way of implementing the region-based adaptive slicing strategy to arc-based metal additive manufacturing. The study articulating a new strategy for its implementation in all types of wire and arc additive manufacturing processes. Originality/value Wire-arc-based technology has the potential to deliver cost-effective solutions for metal additive manufacturing. The research on arc welding-based processes is being carried out in different dimensions. To deposit parts with complex geometry and better dimensional accuracy implementation of a novel region-based adaptive slicing strategy for the arc-based additive manufacturing process is an essential task. The successful implementation of an adaptive slicing strategy would ease the fabrication of complex geometry in less time. This paper accomplishes this need of implementing a region-based adaptive slicing strategy as no experimental investigation has been reported for the TIG-based additive manufacturing process.

A novel adaptive slicing algorithm based on ameliorative area ratio and accurate cusp height for 3D printing

Purpose Adaptive slicing is a key step in three-dimensional (3D) printing as it is closely related to the building time and the surface quality. This study aims to develop a novel adaptive slicing method based on ameliorative area ratio and accurate cusp height for 3D printing using stereolithography (STL) models. Design/methodology/approach The proposed method consists of two stages. In the first stage, the STL model is sliced with constant layer thickness, where an improved algorithm for generating active triangular patches, the list is developed to preprocess the model faster. In the second stage, the model is first divided into several blocks according to the number of contours, then an axis-aligned bounding box-based contour matching algorithm and a polygons intersection algorithm are given to compare the geometric information between several successive layers, which will determine whether these layers can be merged to one. Findings Several benchmarks are applied to verify this new method. Developed method has also been compared with the uniform slicing method and two existing adaptive slicing methods to demonstrate its effectiveness in slicing. Originality/value Compared with other methods, the method leads to fewer layers whilst keeping the geometric error within a given threshold. It demonstrates that the proposed slicing method can reach a trade-off between the building time and the surface quality.