Tri-Dexel Model Based Geometric Simulation of Multi-axis Additive Manufacturing

This paper presents a novel geometric simulation technique for multi-axis Additive Manufacturing (AM). In the proposed methodology, additive swept volume elements, which are represented with Tri-dexel models, are formulated for updating the virtual additive material. Triangular meshes are extracted from the Tri-dexel models using Marching Cube Algorithm for visualization. With the proposed methodology, either three-axis or five-axis AM tool paths of sculpture surfaces can be simulated before actually manufactured. Workpieces after additive manufacturing can be used as blanks for further Subtractive Manufacturing(SM). We developed a geometric simulation software based on the multi-axis AM simulation algorithm, and we carried out an actual three-axis AM experiment to compare with the simulation results. Computer implementation and practical example demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed multi-axis AM simulation method.