Vibration-suppressed toolpath generation for kinematic and energy performance optimization in large dimension additive manufacturing

Product quality and sustainability in large dimension additive manufacturing (LDAM) highly rely on the kinematic and energy performance of LDAM systems. However, the mechanical vibration occurring in the fabrication process hinders the further development of AM technology in industrial manufacturing. To this end, a kinematic and energy performance optimization method for LDAM via vibration-suppressed toolpath generation (VTG) is put forward. Kinematic modeling of LDAM system and related energy consumption modeling are first constructed to reveal that the toolpath of servo system assumes the main responsibility for kinematic and energy performance in LDAM. The vibration-suppressed toolpath generation (VTG) method is thus proposed to customize servo trajectory for kinematic and energy performance optimization in LDAM. Extensive numerical and physical experiments are conducted on the W16 cylinder, including the measurement and analysis of the mechanical vibration amplitude, and assessment of the surface roughness before and after using the proposed VGT. These experimental results demonstrate that our VGT is able to simultaneously achieve kinematic and energy performance optimization in LDAM, even though the fabricated part owns aberrant and complex morphology.