Nonplanar slicing and path generation methods for robotic additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM, generally called 3D printing) has attracted great research interests due to its ability to build complex shapes. It transforms design files to functional products through slicing and material accumulation. Typically, the planar slicing strategy is used in AM to convert CAD model into accumulating layers. However, when building overhang structures and curved parts, it often needs support structures and generates a large number of planar layers, which lead to the fact that it spends more time in manufacturing. To reduce the need for support structures and decrease the number of layers, this paper presents two nonplanar slicing approaches: a decomposition-based curved surface slicing strategy and a transformation-based cylinder surface slicing method. The former is implemented based on STEP models and the latter is capable of slicing mesh models. The feasibility of the proposed methods are validated by printing two parts with a robotic fused deposition modelling system.