Proposed Slicing Method Reducing Features Dimensional Errors in Additive Manufacturing

As subtractive manufacturing has been the most used technique in many production fields since ever, Additive manufacturing became a trendy used production technique due to its cost gain benefits during the last two decades. However, the AM presents some limitations in matter of conventional tolerancing approach, precision and quality aspects especially for sub millimeter dimensional scale. These aspects involve the impact of many parameters defined while the production steps such as support material, material type, printing method and layer thickness. Otherwise, the ‘preparation for printing’ step may have an important influence on enhancing the part’s quality. In this context, aim of our work is to suggest a slicing method adapted for part features such as holes and pockets, and able of reducing the dimensional errors in the features contour zones. Subsequently, the proposed slicing method is developed into a Matlab algorithm. Lastly, a case study of two different parts is exhibited to evaluate the suggested solution.