A Toolpath Design Platform for Multi-material Layered Manufacturing

NC simulation emulates the CNC machine tool and the cutter move along its axis. It depicts the material removal to better visualize the machining process. Until now, its main goals are still confined to check an unproved NC program to avoid potential collisions, and to analyze undercuts and overcuts. In this work, by using the simulated output-the in-process model (IPM), and rebuilding a machining feature based model, applications of NC simulation are extended to establish the feedback link from CNC to CAM, which can automatically pass modifications of manufacturing engineers back through the digital chain. In cases when old CAD archives of parts are incompatible with new systems and machines, or are damaged or lost, the original CAD model is neither available nor usable, and the part program is the only data available, rebuilding the feature based model from the NC simulation is necessary. This paper proposes an approach for machining feature recognition from IPM. As per the IPM characteristics, the approach adopts a novel approach of curvature based region segmentation and valuated adjacency graph based feature recognition.

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Tool change reduction for multicolor fused filament fabrication through interlayer tool clustering implemented in PrusaSlicer

Petsiuk,

Bloch,

Vogt

et al. 2024

RPJ

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Purpose Presently in multicolor fused filament-based three-dimensional (3-D) printing, significant amounts of waste material are produced through nozzle priming and purging each time a change from one color to another occurs. G-code generating slicing software typically changes the material on each layer resulting in wipe towers with greater mass than the target object. The purpose of this study is to provide an alternative fabrication approach based on interlayer tool clustering (ITC) for the first time, which reduces the number of tool changes and is compatible with any commercial 3-D printer without the need for hardware modifications. Design/methodology/approach The authors have developed an open-source PrusaSlicer upgrade, compatible with Slic3r-based software, which uses the described algorithm to generate g-code toolpath and print experimental objects. The theoretical time, material and energy savings are calculated and validated to evaluate the proposed fabrication method qualitatively and quantitatively. Findings The experimental results show the novel ITC method can significantly increase the efficiency of multimaterial printing, with an average 1.7-fold reduction in material use, and an average 1.4-fold reduction in both time and 3-D printing energy use. In addition, this approach reduces the likelihood of technical failures in the manufacturing of the entire part by reducing the number of tool changes, or material transitions, on average by 2.4 times. Originality/value The obtained results support distributed recycling and additive manufacturing, which has both environmental and economic benefits and increasing the number of colors in a 3-D print increases manufacturing savings.

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A Toolpath Design Platform for Multi-material Layered Manufacturing

Cited by 3 publications

References 29 publications

A virtual prototyping system with reconfigurable actuators for multi-material layered manufacturing

A virtual prototyping system with reconfigurable actuators for multi-material layered manufacturing

Reconfigurable Multi-material Layered Manufacturing

Tool change reduction for multicolor fused filament fabrication through interlayer tool clustering implemented in PrusaSlicer

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