Automated Process Planning for Embossing and Functionally Grading Materials via Site-Specific Control in Large-Format...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science and Engineering
• Manufacturing Technology
• Computational Engineering

Background:

• Additive Manufacturing (AM) offers site-specific control, but process planning remains a bottleneck.
• Interest in functionally graded materials via AM is high, yet development is hindered by manual programming.
• Current methods for site-specific control in AM often rely on bespoke solutions and manual programming.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop automated slicing software for through-thickness, process-parameter control in additive manufacturing.
• To overcome limitations in process planning for site-specific material property control in AM.
• To enable advanced material grading and structural modifications in AM components.

Main Methods:

• Development of slicing software with a fully automated process planning approach.
• Utilizing parent and child geometries for defining locations of site-specific parameters.
• Implementing a vector-based planning approach, assigning information like melt pool size to toolpath vectors.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a proof-of-principle experiment generating dynamic bead geometries for a novel surface embossing effect.
• Successfully enabled through-thickness, process-parameter control for various AM processes.
• Showcased software support for complex object geometries and macro/micro-structural modifications.

Conclusions:

• The developed software provides a fully automated process planning solution for site-specific parameter control in AM.
• This technique allows for precise control over material properties and structural modifications, advancing functionally graded materials.
• The vector-based approach with parent/child geometries offers a versatile platform for complex AM applications.