A practical toolpath planning method for cold spray additive manufacturing of rotational symmetry parts

Rotational symmetry parts are common and essential in industrial applications. Cold spray additive manufacturing (CSAM) is an attractive and rapidly developing solid-state material deposition process, providing an efficient and convenient method for producing such parts, as it allows for the rapid formation of high-quality, large-volume 3D objects. Since there is no highly reactive liquid phase involved in this process, the deposited material is free of oxides. As compared to conventional additive manufacturing methods, cold spraying enables to reduce the production costs and times. In this work, a general implementation method for CSAM of rotating symmetry casing parts is presented. Here, the developed application can handle rotational symmetry parts of arbitrary geometry in the form of CAD files to generate precise toolpaths. Robot offline programming allows for process simulation, analysis, and optimization. Additionally, modelling of robot kinematics is employed to evaluate the effect of the planned toolpaths on the spraying process, ensuring efficient and precise manufacturing processes.