OFF-LINE PROGRAMMING OF ROBOTS FOR METAL DEPOSITION

Metal Deposition (MD) is a rapid prototyping technique to build parts by depositing metal in a required fashion. When a complex-shaped part is to be built, a simulation tool is needed to define robot trajectories. Three different simulation-based methods for robot trajectory generation are introduced and compared in this study. The methods are; reversed milling, adapted rapid prototyping and application programming in a computer aided robotics software. All methods were shown capable of creating robot paths for complex shapes, with the CAR software approach being the most flexible. Using this method, the geometry to be built is automatically sliced into layers and a robot path is automatically generated. The method was tentatively evaluated and appears to provide a powerful technique in the design and optimisation of robot paths for MD. Experiments showed that it is possible to manufacture fully dense parts using an Nd-Yag laser.