Stress-Aligned Multi-Axis Toolpaths for Thin-Walled Structures
Y. Chi (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
J. Wu – Mentor (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
K. Wu – Mentor (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
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Abstract
Thin-walled products use surface geometry to combine function with low mass. Additive manufacturing can produce these shapes, but producing the shape is not equivalent to producing its intended load paths when the deposited material response is anisotropic.
We investigate whether multi-axis deposition can translate a shell load case into inspectable, finite-width, stress-aligned conformal toolpath proposals before fabrication.
Short-fibre fused-filament fabrication (FFF) provides the practical case for direction-dependent deposition. The prototype links a shell stress field, shell-following layer surfaces, a spectral direction field, and finite-width path realization. Coverage, overlap, and directional error describe different geometric properties and are reported individually.
We then conduct two fixed-stress evaluations: a path-dependent manufacturing-aware comparative index relating coverage shortfall, misalignment, and bead discontinuity to local demand, and a path-free comparison between one conformal material frame and prescribed planar frames. Integrating mechanics, surface geometry, path generation, and fixed-stress evaluation in one inspectable workflow is the central contribution.
Across five thin-walled shell geometries, all fifteen recorded path realizations fell below the adopted contextual reference values for coverage shortfall, overlap, and directional error at the trace-mesh resolution used in the study. A supplemental numerical check showed that exact path placement and derived measures remained sensitive to solver initialization at that resolution. For the two geometries used in the path-free material-frame comparison, the conformal frame gave a substantially lower index on the end dome, while the small wing difference was inconclusive.
These results support initial computational feasibility for generating and evaluating stress-aligned conformal paths. Physical calibration, machine planning, and coupled structural re-analysis are the next steps towards predictive and manufacturing use.