Tool Path-Based Deposition Planning in Fused Deposition Processes

The fabrication of a functional part requires very high layer quality in the Fused Deposition (FD) processes. The constant deposition flow rate currently used in FD technology cannot meet this requirement, due to the varying geometries of the layers. To achieve a high quality functional part, an overfill and underfill analysis is conducted. A deposition planning approach is proposed, which is based on a grouping and mapping algorithm. Two piezoelectric test parts have been built to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed approach.