NON-PLANAR TOOLPATH FOR LARGE SCALE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Abstract

The parts produced by additive manufacturing are inherently subjected to discretization effects due to their layer-based addition. The stair-stepping effect on the surface quality is inevitable for most of the techniques and it becomes more dominant for the regions having small surface inclinations. The stair-stepping influences the mechanical properties as well as the aesthetic perception. Many researchers have been presented several approaches to overcome or minimize the stair-stepping effects and improve the surface quality of additively manufactured parts. The attempts have been made generally for the FDM-printed objects, however, there is no or fewer efforts have been made for parts of large-scale additive manufacturing (LSAM). Due to higher deposition rates (up to 50 kg/hrs.) and larger nozzle diameters (i.e. bead size) the discretization effect is more in large-scale additive manufacturing. In this paper, the presented methods to mitigate the stair-stepping effect and improving the surface quality of additive manufacturing are reviewed and practicing in large-scale 3D printing is discussed. A preliminary experimental study of 3D printing with a non-planar toolpath was carried out and the results were presented.