Study on the Relationship between Process Plan and Resource Requirement in Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Resource consumption in additive manufacturing (AM) is often tied with the physical attribute of the fabricated part. Thus, optimizing the processes plan for minimum part fabrication resource requirement is a matter of great interest. In this thesis, the hierarchical nature of the AM process plan steps are emphasized and both build direction and material deposition direction are optimized while considering the resource requirement. A novel combined two-step optimization methodology is presented to determine optimal build direction for the object and material deposition direction for layers while considering minimum contour plurality, surface quality, build height, fabrication factor, and layer contour concavity to compensate for the fabrication and resource limitations. Furthermore, a concurrent process plan optimization methodology is presented focusing on fabrication complexity resulting from part geometry. Implementation of the proposed methodologies on several example parts indicates substantial reduction of their total build time.