Hybrid Manufacturing Decomposition Rules and Programming Strategies for Service Parts

Abstract

For service parts, production runs are ‘on demand’, and managing the inventory for components or the tooling is expensive. Additive manufacturing (AM) processes lend themselves to this application as their key strength is the ability to fabricate components with no tooling or fixtures. However, several AM processes require significant post processing to remove support materials as well as generate the required surface finishes and feature tolerances. The main purpose of this research is to determine whether a directed energy deposition (DED) AM solution can be used to manufacture selected components that are presently cast, machined, or forged using hybrid manufacturing build solutions, where machining operations are introduced as required. Select DED AM processes are used to fabricate a near net shape, and either final machining or interspersed machining operations are included. A product-process classification schema is introduced to cluster similar build strategies. This provides the background for the decomposition approaches and the process planning strategies. The build times and material usage are included and component redesign is discussed to facilitate the manufacturing process and optimize the design. This is ongoing research and, in future work, an analysis of the heat maps and the resulting mechanical and physical properties will be evaluated for these components.

Geometry-based decomposition rules and programming strategies for complex components in additive and hybrid manufacturing

“…A structured procedure for defining geometry codes for general parts has been developed [43]. This foundational step is the cornerstone of this study.…”

“…The overarching goal of this research is to develop generative process planning solutions for DED and HM. The goal for this paper to develop a 'family of parts' strategy to facilitate process planning solutions for specialty and service components using HM, building on previous work [43].…”

“…In a previous publication [43], a structured coding schema has been used to classify the initial conditions and the geometry of part. The code was represented in the form of a hierarchy of subcodes (Figure 5).…”

“…This is presented in Tables 4 and 5. Case studies related to manufacturing complex castings have been presented in [43].…”

“…(Table 16). To resolve the overhang problem, tilt in tool head is considered to ensure that the angle between tool vector and the tangent line to the overhang surface is less than 10° [43] (Figure 38). The additive process here uses a 1 mm bead with a 1 mm height, with extra stock to provide enough material for machining post processing.…”