Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Free software tools for Additive Manufacturing process planning
Submission Author:
Laureana Stelmastchuk Benassi Fontolan , SP , Brazil
Co-Authors:
Laureana Stelmastchuk Benassi Fontolan, Vinícius Rocha de Moraes Alves, Marcelo Oliveira , Pedro Noritomi
Presenter: Laureana Stelmastchuk Benassi Fontolan
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-1883
Abstract
In Additive Manufacturing (AM) parts are fabricated adding material in a layer by layer procedure, it comprises different technologies and materials, having great relevance in the aerospace, biotechnology, medical and automotive industries. The process planning for producing high quality parts from 3D digital models is a challenge to overcome. Each technology and equipment have a computer aided manufacturing (CAM) tool more aligned for its applications. The purpose of this study is to unify the process planning in one free software option, thus increasing efficiency and lowering costs for software aquisition. The Renato Archer Information Technology Center is a Brazilian research center located in Campinas, state of S ̃ao Paulo, it supports academic and industrial research with AM techniques such as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), Electron Beam Melting (EBM), Polyjet, Binderjet and Waxjet through the 3D printing Open Lab (LAprint). As a free software, Blender’s open code allows the users to develop features and adapt it for specific applications, it is a digital modeling tool already established for graphical art and entertainment industry with very relevant production. Now it is becoming increasingly popular due to its cost-effectiveness for AM applications compared to the commercially available options. The software Blender was implemented for process planning stage performing tasks such as mesh correction and analysis, models placement in the equipment’s build volume and collision detection. All the tasks were performed for SLS - Sintertation HiQ (3D Systems), EBM - Arcam Q10 plus (GE Additive) and PolyJet Object Connex 350 (Stratasys) and Polyjet prior to slicing and fabrication. Some of the tasks can be performed directly in the graphical user interface (GUI) and others through python scripting. Further development is still in progress and it aims to integrate tasks in the GUI using python scripting only to automate processes. The procedure described in this study can reduce costs with software license acquisition, it contributes with the free software community and it can help other research centers and business with high transparency protocols in the Industry 4.0 context, yet reducing it’s costs.
Keywords
Additive manufacturing, process planning, Free software
