Path Planning In Plasma Deposition Dieless Shaping Of Complex Shape Metal Part

PDM(Plasma Deposition Manufacturing) is a new technology, which is based on Rapid Prototyping and can directly and rapidly fabricate functional metal parts having high intensity and full density by plasma high energy density beam. PDM has some advantages: high forming efficiency, low cost, good machining flexibility, diversiform kinds of material powder, unlimited shape and size and so on.Plasma deposition direct manufacturing of metal parts is restricted within narrow practical scope by the problem of low shape complexity and unfeasibility of adding support structures, which also exists in other direct metal prototyping technologies using high energy beams. In recent years, The research hotspot of LM (Layered Manufacturing) has shifted to directly manufacturing of metal parts using multi-axies (3-axies,5-axies etc) simultaneous motion, via which the problem of forming complex shape metal parts without support structure can be overcome effectively. The 5-Aixis Plasma Deposition Multi-direction Directly Manufacturing System, which combines technologies of Rapid Prototyping, CAD/CAM, Numerical Control and Multi-Direction Layered Deposition is studied in this paper. The system has the ability of depositing material along multiple directions. It can not only get good quality while forming, but also be able to directly manufacture complex shape metal parts without support structures.Based on the STL model, the basic theory of five-Aixes Plasma Deposition Multi-direction Directly Manufacturing System is studied in this paper. The key issue is part decomposition. Through virtual interactive interface, complex shape metal part with overhanging features was decomposed into smaller sub-volumes, each of which can be completely built along a certain direction. In the ideal case part decomposition enables support-less fabrication.A task framework for multi-direction layered manufacturing is proposed. Key issues including the feature recognition of complex parts, the solid decomposition strategy, the cell manufacturing strategies, optimization of build direction for parts, technics of slicing and path planning are studied in this paper. Using object-oriented technology and UML (Unified Modeling Language), the CAM software for 5-Aixes Plasma Deposition Multi- direction Directly Manufacturing System is developed under Visual C + + 6.0 development platform.In addition, the Open CNC system software base on PMAC is also developed by Microsoft Visual C++6.0 tool with Object Oriented Technology."NC into PC"structure is adopted in the research and data are changed and controlled with PC inside-Bus. The software contains functions of process path layout, NC program download, process control and real-time monitor. Finally, it will combine with actual process to break the restriction brought by traditional CNC system.