3D printing path planning algorithm for thin walled and complex devices

Min Yang,Menggang Lai,Shengjun Liu

doi:10.1515/secm-2021-0032

Min Yang, Menggang Lai + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1515/secm-2021-0032

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Abstract

Abstract With the popularity of stereo printing technology, 3D printers are widely used in industry, manufacturing, medicine, and other industries to quickly manufacture small devices. Before 3D printing, it is necessary to plan the printing path. Unreasonable printing path will not only increase the time consumption of printing products, but also cause printing failure due to the accumulation of stress and deformation in the printing process. In order to overcome the superimposed stress and deformation in the process of printing thin-walled complex devices, this article introduces the idea of balanced stress based on the basic damage of the path planning based on the potential field method. In the printing process, the ring path, island path and cross path are added to overcome the stress deformation phenomenon and improve the printing quality. Finally, the 3D printer is used to manufacture thin-walled complex devices, and the feasibility of the balanced potential field method is verified by physical comparison.

Highlights

To plan a reasonable printing path, researchers have conducted extensive research on 3D printing path planning to improve printing efficiency and molding quality
In order to improve the efficiency of 3D printing, this article proposes a path planning method based on balanced potential field (BPF) algorithm
Extensive research on potential field methods has proved the effectiveness in path planning, but those research mainly focuses on robots and unmanned aerial vehicles [15,16]

Summary

Introduction

To plan a reasonable printing path, researchers have conducted extensive research on 3D printing path planning to improve printing efficiency and molding quality. In order to reduce the time-consuming of empty paths in printing and to improve the printing efficiency, Rui-Shi et al [3] applied “Z” planning algorithm to print devices. Colony algorithm, hash algorithm and Hilbert curve method [11,12,13,14] are applied to 3D printing to find new and efficient planning methods These algorithms improve the 3D printing performance to a certain extent, they are not suitable for the special case of thin-walled devices. In order to improve the efficiency of 3D printing, this article proposes a path planning method based on balanced potential field (BPF) algorithm. The gravity function Uatt is defined as a monotonic function that grows with the distance function d(n, ngoal) between the current position node n and the target node ngoal

Potential field method

Basic thought

Algorithm derivation

Configuration of 3D printing environment

Experimental verification

Conclusion