Automatic multi-direction slicing algorithms for wire based additive manufacturing

Authors

Donghong Ding, University of WollongongFollow
Zengxi Pan, University of WollongongFollow
Dominic Cuiuri, University of WollongongFollow
Huijun Li, University of WollongongFollow
Nathan P. Larkin, University of WollongongFollow
Stephen van Duin, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

103015

Publication Details

Ding, D., Pan, Z., Cuiuri, D., Li, H., Larkin, N. & van Duin, S. (2016). Automatic multi-direction slicing algorithms for wire based additive manufacturing. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 37 139-150.

Abstract

One of the key challenges in Additive Manufacturing is to develop a robust algorithm to slice CAD models into a set of layers which requires minimal support structures. This paper reports the concept and implementation of a new strategy for multi-direction slicing of CAD models represented in STL format. Differing from the existing multi-direction slicing approaches that are mainly focused on finding an optimal volume decomposition strategy, this study presents a decomposition-regrouping method. The CAD model is firstly decomposed into sub-volumes using a simple curvature-based volume decomposition method. Then a depth-tree structure based on topology information is introduced to merge them into ordered groups for slicing. In addition, a model simplification step is introduced before CAD model decomposition to significantly enhance the capability of the proposed multi-direction strategy. The proposed strategy is shown to be simple and efficient on various tests parts especially for geometries with large number of holes.