Improving the path planning and the printing time for an optimized infill of 3D objects by reducing sharp angles and having a continuous path

Abstract

Purpose – Three-dimensional printing is a technology that can provide one of the most efficient methods for product design, prototyping, and production being positively cost-effective due to the efficiency of the design, the customization of the objects, and the variety of materials. However, contemporary computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) systems use different infill patterns that have the same similarity, they usually contain sharp angles and non-continuous trajectories. A new algorithm is used to create an infill that minimizes the sharp angles in the infills and having a continuous path in order to generate the necessary tool-path information. In this thesis, we propose a new algorithm to create a new type of infill that reduces the amount of time and material used in each layer of an object printed with the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology. Design/methodology/approach – In the proposed algorithm, a grid is generated in a layer with the specific shape that corresponds to a 3D object, it consists of a percentage according to the one is chosen by the user, being 20% the most used in this technology. The infill is created with a continuous path and minimizing the sharp angles in the whole layer, the optimization is accomplished by using simulated annealing. Findings – By creating and running different experiments in various models of FDM 3D printers, we proved the base of our algorithm, that by having sharp angles in the infill, the total printing time is increased due to the positive and negative acceleration of the printing head, altogether with the non-continuous path that increases the time when stopping extruding material and staring again. Applying the proposed algorithm, this information can be used to create a new path for an infill giving as result the reduction of time and material in each layer of a 3D printed object. Research limitations/implications – The proposed methodology can be applied to create a new infill for objects that will be printed with the FDM technology. However, the algorithm works for optimizing one layer at a time. In the future, we would like to investigate the results between fill patterns of consecutive layers, where consecutive layers can’t be identical to provide good resiliency to the object. Originality/value – The proposed algorithm is a novel development for creating a new type of infill that reduces the amount of time and material employed in the fabrication of 3D objects using the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology.