Prescriptive modeling and compensation of in-plane shape deformation for 3-D printed freeform products

Abstract

Although 3D printing or additive manufacturing (AM) holds great promise as a direct manufacturing technology, the geometric accuracy of AM built products remains a critical issue, especially for freeform products with complex geometric shapes. Efforts have long been attempted to improve the accuracy of AM built freeform products. But there is a lack of generic and prescriptive methodology transparent to specific designs and AM processes. This study fills the gap by establishing the methodology to predict and compensate the in-plane (x — y plane) geometric deformation of AM built freeform products using a limited number of simple trial shapes. Built upon our previous predictive model and optimal compensation study for cylinder and polyhedron shapes, this work makes a breakthrough by directly controlling arbitrary freeform shape deformation from CAD design. Experimental investigation using stereolithography process successfully validates the proposed prescriptive modeling and compensation methodology. The study provides the prospect of proactively improving printing accuracy of arbitrary products built by a varieties of AM processes.