Development of an additive and subtractive hybrid manufacturing process planning strategy of planar surface for productivity and geometric accuracy

The directed energy deposition (DED) process enables the production of near net shape parts in the starting form of either powder or wire melted by a focused energy source, such as laser. The target geometry is then built layer by layer. In theory, engineering components with complex shapes can be fabricated with a single setup using a hybrid CNC machine tool, which has capabilities of both DED and traditional subtractive machining processes. However, the issue of inaccurate DED deposited geometry and insufficient material deposition results in the repetition of the hybrid process to achieve the goal geometric dimension. This paper presents a generalized strategy for different materials that plan DED toolpath for the planar geometric feature to achieve its required final geometric dimension by using only a single hybrid manufacturing cycle based on simulated results and validate the strategy experimentally by using a hybrid CNC machine.