Tool axis vector optimization based on automatic smoothing rotary angles of five-axis machining for laser additive manufacturing.

In order to fulfill the demands of increasingly complex processes, laser additive manufacturing processes are combined with five-axis linkage technology. The tool axis vector is critical to the accuracy of part shaping. However, due to the machine performance limitation, the previous methods of tool axis planning may cause the laser deposition head to decelerate and wait for the rotary table, leading to an abnormal bulge at the position. Therefore, this paper proposed a tool axis vector optimization method based on automatically smoothing the C-axis rotary angle. First, the adjustment range of the C-axis angle is calculated by forward and negative kinematics, to ensure that the molten pool is still formed at the planned position after adjustment. Then, the positions with large changes in C-axis angle are detected and locally optimized to ensure that the optimized result allows the laser deposition head to maintain a constant speed when linked with other axes. Finally, global optimization is performed using curve smoothing to deal with the corner regions left by the local optimization to make the machine motion smoother. The printing results of S-shaped and elbow parts show a significant improvement in print quality with less wear and tear on the machine, thus demonstrating the effectiveness and feasibility of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]