Sectoral Path Planning for Selective Laser Melting of Workpieces with Variable-Thickness

Metal additive manufacturing demonstrates unique advantages in fabricating complex workpieces. However, if the wall of the workpiece is non-uniform, it is difficult to prevent the risk of cracking, especially for selective laser melting. In this paper, a sectoral scanning strategy for the workpiece with non-uniform wall thicknesses is proposed to address the challenges. Firstly, the thin and thick regions are partitioned automatically using medial axis transform and Otsu’s algorithm; Secondly, transition regions are identified through a statistic method with the intention to optimize the stress distribution; At last, differentiated scanning paths are tailored for different regions. A path planning result for a non-uniform wall thickness component model is given to show the result the proposed methodology.