Harnessing between a computer-aided design (CAD) file and actual printing of the 3D part is currently a tedious step for robotic gas metal arc directed energy deposition (GMA-DED) process.

The generation of a suitable scanning strategy consisting of overlapping tracks and successive layers needs several iterations, which is rarely supported by an organized single source.

We present here three possible strategies for easy-to-use CAD-to-Print strategies utilizing open-source software for robotic GMA-DED, which are referred to as point-based, feature-based and drawing-based approaches.

The point-based approach involves discretization of the CAD model into target points and applicable for linear paths and regular geometry. The feature-based approach involves the generation of path by slicing the CAD model.

It can consider both regular and irregular geometries but limited to linear paths. The drawing-based approach involves paths drawn on contours of the CAD model and is flexible for linear and non-linear scanning paths.

Although all three strategies involve user intervention, they have the potential for automation.

This article is shared by Birendra Kumar Barik, Prashant Kumar Chaurasia, Amitava De, and Veer Surendra Sai.