Mechanical property optimization of parts manufactured via parametrized helical printing

Helical5AM-recently proposed by Gunpinar and Armanfar-offers a new helical additive manufacturing technique, where print-path orientations can be adjusted by setting helix lead angles and turn directions of the helical print-paths. The present work aims at optimizing the print-path orientations for a part under a certain loading condition. The part is first decomposed into layers, which are covered by helical print-paths. The layers are meshed conformally using hexahedral elements. According to lead helix angles, material orientations are given to these elements. Finite element analysis (FEA) is then carried out for investigating the mechanical properties of the part. An optimization approach is coupled with FEA to optimize lead helix angles for the helical print-paths. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified via multiple experiments with various loading conditions. The results indicate that the optimized parts exhibit better mechanical properties.