Five-axis multi-direction 3D printing slicing algorithm

Traditional additive manufacturing (AM) is a layer-by-layer material deposition process, but sometimes it requires the construction of a support structure to complete the corresponding print, and removing the support structure is expensive and time consuming, especially for metal prints. Five-axis additive manufacturing printers have the potential to build structures without the need for support. However, there is a lack of automated process planning software to support the use of five-axis additive manufacturing printers. This paper describes an automated approach: the print needs to be first broken down into sub-volumes so that each sub-volume can be built without support structures in its build direction, and then the corresponding print path is generated by ordering the decomposed volumes while ensuring that there is no local conflict with the previously deposited volumes. The algorithm in this paper realizes a direct print molding.