Optimum Part Build Orientation in Additive Manufacturing for Minimizing Part Errors and Support Structures

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is the process of part building by stacking layers of material on top of each other. Various challenges for a metal powder based process include reducing the staircase effect which leads to poor surface finish of the part, and minimal use of support structures for regions with overhangs or internal hollow volumes. Part build orientation is a crucial process parameter which affects part quality, in particular, Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T) errors on the part, the energy expended and the extent of support structures required. This paper provides an approach to identify an optimal build orientation which will minimize the volume of support structures while meeting the specified GD&T criteria of the part for a DMLS based process. Siemens PLM NX API is used to extract the GD&T callouts and associated geometric information of the CAD model. The regions requiring support structures are identified and a Quadtree decomposition is used to find the volume of support structures. The mathematical relationships between build orientation and GD&T are developed as part of a combined optimization model to identify best build orientations for minimizing support structures while meeting the design tolerances. The feasible build orientations along with the corresponding support structures are depicted using a visual model.