A new adaptive slicing approach for the fully dense freeform fabrication (FDFF) process

Abstract

Fully dense freeform fabrication (FDFF) is a process based on thin line cutting processes, variable thickness layering, slicing in different orientations, and bulk layer attachment. The combination of these capabilities enables the production of good quality complex parts from practically any material at a very fast pace. As for rapid prototypes fabricated by the FDFF process, it is certainly possible to employ adaptive slicing technique due to the possibility of cutting different metal/non-metal sheet at various thicknesses. This paper proposes a new adaptive slicing method whereby the capability of cutting a 3D solid model at the predefined sheets’ thicknesses is achieved and the geometry of all internal and external features of a part is also investigated to ensure the reduction of part geometry deviation through the seamless curvature detection. Despite most previous works which start slicing a tessellated or direct CAD model at the maximum available thickness, this system commences the process with available minimum thickness by applying a new adaptive method to all pairs of contours at the top and bottom slices of the layer. Autodesk Inventor solid modeler, as a design-by-feature solid modeler, is used for 3D solid modeling. The proposed system is implemented by Visual Basic codes inside Inventor using API functions to access both geometry and topology information of the design-by-feature solid model. This system has been successfully tested on a variety of complex parts containing sophisticated internal and external features.