Non-planar 5-axis directional additive manufacturing of plastics: machine, process, and tool path

Additive manufacturing (AM) of plastics is a rising research and application area for light weighting. The conventional way of AM is conducted layer-by-layer, whereas recently non-planar AM is proposed with several advantages such as better use of the material through decreased weight-to-strength ratio, reuse of support material and increased conformity for AM of complex shapes. As for all the tool path-based manufacturing processes, generation of the tool path, selection of process parameters and the machine tool configuration significantly affects the product quality. In this study, non-planar AM of plastics is handled in a holistic manner covering tool path, process, and machine perspectives. Tool path generation for non-planar and directional AM is discussed in accordance with the CAD-CAM software, where the tool path is generated using a novel approach which works with the bead directions obtained from FEM based mechanical analysis. The effects of critical process parameters on the geometrical conformity for non-planar AM are discussed through visual inspection. The proposed cluster-based tool path planning is successfully shown demonstrated from the geometrical perspective.