Abstract
Topology optimisation is an effective approach to design extreme lightweight components. However, most of the resulted optimum lightweight components usually have complex structures which cannot be produced successfully by traditional manufacturing processes. Selective laser melting is one of the additive manufacturing processes. It shows powerful capacity in the manufacturing of metal components with complex structures. Therefore, the combination of topology optimisation and selective laser melting shows a promising prospect for metal components. However, support structures were usually introduced during the selective laser melting manufacturing process, which resulted to some disadvantages, for example, the support structures are generally difficult to remove from the original components because it is difficult to clamping and machining. Therefore, a design method was proposed in this study, named lightweight and support-free design method, the detailed design process and advantages were presented. In the design process, topology optimisation was applied to realise lightweight design, and support-free design process was developed to meet the support-free requirement. Finally, as a case, a cross-beam component was designed using the proposed method, and the final model was produced successfully using selective laser melting process. The case study result verified that the proposed design method is effective to design lightweight and support-free industrial metal components for SLM process.
Highlights
Campus, Balikesir, TurkeyTopology optimisation (TO) is a mathematical method that distributes materials optimally within a given design domain, based on specific loads and boundary conditions
A lightweight and supportfree (L&S) design method is proposed in this study in order to design lightweight industrial metal components, which can be produced directly by Selective laser melting (SLM) process without any support structures
Some material is added on model B* according to the SLM manufacturing constraints given in Section 2.3 to realise support-free requirement
Summary
Topology optimisation (TO) is a mathematical method that distributes materials optimally within a given design domain, based on specific loads and boundary conditions. SLM shows a high potential for manufacturing metal components with complex structures which cannot be manufactured by traditional processing technologies [4]. As a real-world application, a cross-beam structure component is designed using the proposed method and manufactured using the SLM technology. This study shows how metal components can be produced using SLM consuming less material and requiring no post-processing operations. A L&S design method is proposed in this study in order to design lightweight industrial metal components, which can be produced directly by SLM process without any support structures. The L&S design method is an optimisation process to find optimal lightweight structures that fulfil support-free expectation of SLM technology.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have