Turning-angle optimized printing path of continuous carbon fiber for cellular structures Article Swipe
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· 2023
· Open Access
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· DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2023.103501
· OA: W4328097600
This paper presents an algorithm to compute optimized toolpaths to print thin-walled cellular structures with continuous carbon fiber. The input cellular structure is usually represented by a graph G, and the requirements to ensure high quality manufacturing include the coverage, continuity and sharp-turning prevention of fiber deposition. To satisfy these requirements, we develop a new algorithm to search a continuous path on G's dual graph, the corresponding path on which G minimizes the total energy of tuning angles and can visit all edges of G at least once and at most twice. With the help of a post-processing algorithm, a path determined on the dual graph can be converted into an overlap-reduced toolpath for printing continuous carbon fiber. Physical tests were conducted to demonstrate the advantage of printing paths generated by our algorithm. Up to 46% enhancement on the breaking force is observed during the tensile tests when using a similar amount of fibers.