Effects of process parameters on the quality off non-planar 5-axis printing of free form surfaces

Additive manufacturing of composite structures has been an important research and application area for light weighting. As opposed to layer-by-layer approach, non-planar directional printing offers better use of the material strength according to the loading conditions. As for all of the manufacturing processes, parameters have significant effects on the product quality and hence mechanical performance. In this study, the effects of printing parameters such as layer thickness and side step distance, i.e. bead distance, on 3D directional printing are discussed in the sense of visual part quality. Design of experiments approach is used to identify the level of process parameters; the tool path is generated and planned using the built-in surface machining operations in Siemens NX