Semi-Automated Design Workflow for Bolt Clamping Interfaces to Post-Process Additive Manufactured Parts

Abstract

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) enables the production of complex and individualized designs. However, most AM parts require postprocessing with subtractive manufacturing processes, which can account for a significant percentage of the total manufacturing cost of an AM part. Positioning and clamping of complex AM parts within post-processing machines often lead to increased prestresses and reduced tool accessibility. One concept to address this problem is the integration of clamping interfaces in the part. But this leads to the new design challenge of optimal and material-saving placement of clamping interfaces on the part. To overcome this challenge new design tools are desired that facilitate this work and automatically generate the design of clamping interfaces.A recently developed clamping system uses bolts that are directly printed onto parts as clamping interfaces. These printed bolts and the clamping jaws of the system enable a unique spatial positioning and rigid clamping of AM parts for post-processing. This work introduces a design workflow that supports the positioning of bolts using a knowledge-based engineering (KBE) approach. The workflow thus allows the user to easily find a feasible clamping configuration and automatically generates the geometries of the bolt-shaped clamping interfaces. As input, the workflow uses the part geometry and an AM build direction. During the workflow, the user can modify the position of the clamping system relative to the part and find feasible positions for bolts. The bolt geometries are then generated automatically, and the part can be exported. This paper describes the workflow in detail and provides a vision for future developments of the tool and its potential for the AM process chain.