A toolpath design platform for multi-material layered manufacturing

Abstract

Toolpath planning is vital to multi-material layered manufacturing (MMLM), particularly for improvements in fabrication efficiency and quality of prototypes. This paper proposes a toolpath design platform (TDP) for planning and validation of toolpaths in MMLM. The TDP consists of three constraint modelling modules to represent common operational and mechanical constraints of an MMLM process, and subsequently generate feasible and efficient toolpaths for digital fabrication of multimaterial prototypes in a built-in virtual prototyping (VP) module. The material deposition speeds and priorities can also be adjusted to suit various material properties and optimize the toolpaths. Simulations show that the TDP is an effective tool to model and simulate MMLM processes, and accordingly generate practicable toolpath strategies for different application requirements. © 2011 CAD Solutions, LLC.