TOWARD ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OF ARCHITECTED MATERIALS: A PLANAR ANALYSIS

The term architected material describes a class of materials whose physical properties are determined both by material properties and geometry. These materials play an increasingly crucial role in various fields including research, medicine, and industry. Due to its ability to produce complex geometries, additive manufacturing (AM) technology has been widely adopted in the fabrication of architected materials. Nonetheless, in most scenarios, AM is only applicable to the geometries containing open voids. This effort investigates the feasibility of fabricating geometries that contain closed voids via support-free AM. This initial investigation considers planar part geometries produced using a three-degree-of-freedom (3-DoF) task space. Part geometry is defined as a two-dimensional (2D) polygon containing convex polygonal holes. Using this assumed part geometry, this work partitions the part using a set of polygons that are ordered using feasible layering directions and collision constraints. Because the 3-DoF task space enables re-orientation of the part during fabrication, the overhang constraints (defined relative to the gravitational vector) can be addressed by rotating the part. Results show a method of generating and ordering polygons that can be printed subject to collision and overhang constraints.