Manufacturability Oriented Model Correction and Build Direction Optimization for Additive Manufacturing

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to automatically correct 3D models for manufacturability in additive manufacturing, optimizing build orientation and minimal shape modifications to ensure successful printing.

Contribution

It introduces a topology-aware correction algorithm combined with build orientation optimization to enhance manufacturability with minimal shape alterations.

Findings

The method successfully corrects models for various AM processes.

Optimized build orientation reduces the need for extensive modifications.

Printed results validate the effectiveness of the approach.

Abstract

We introduce a method to analyze and modify a shape to make it manufacturable for a given additive manufacturing (AM) process. Different AM technologies, process parameters or materials introduce geometric constraints on what is manufacturable or not. Given an input 3D model and minimum printable feature size dictated by the manufacturing process characteristics and parameters, our algorithm generates a corrected geometry that is printable with the intended AM process. A key issue in model correction for manufacturability is the identification of critical features that are affected by the printing process. To address this challenge, we propose a topology aware approach to construct the allowable space for a print head to traverse during the 3D printing process. Combined with our build orientation optimization algorithm, the amount of modifications performed on the shape is kept at minimum while providing an accurate approximation of the as-manufactured part. We demonstrate our method on a variety of 3D models and validate it by 3D printing the results.