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A skeleton-based process planning framework for support-free 3+2-axis printing of multi-branch freeform parts

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A Correction to this article was published on 23 August 2020

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Abstract

Continuous 3+2-axis additive manufacturing (AM) is an emerging AM technology that overcomes the signature problems of the need of support structures and the staircase effect of the traditional 3-axis AM. This paper presents a novel process planning framework for automatically generating a multi-axis support-free printing path for continuous 3+2-axis AM of an arbitrary freeform part. The framework is based on the geometric processing of skeletonization and decomposition and is particularly suitable for a part with distinct multiple trunk-branch structures. The physical printing experimental results carried out by the authors indicate that the proposed framework has performed well and fabricated some challenging models with large overhangs and twisty spatial topologies.

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Change history

  • 23 August 2020

    The original published article contained a mistake.

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Funding

This work is financially supported by Hong Kong RGC-GRF/16200819.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave., West High-tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

    Xiangyu Wang, Lufeng Chen, Tak-Yu Lau & Kai Tang

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  1. Xiangyu Wang
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  2. Lufeng Chen
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  3. Tak-Yu Lau
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  4. Kai Tang
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Correspondence to Kai Tang.

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Wang, X., Chen, L., Lau, TY. et al. A skeleton-based process planning framework for support-free 3+2-axis printing of multi-branch freeform parts. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 110, 327–350 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05790-0

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