Build orientation determination of multi-feature mechanical parts in selective laser melting via multi-objective decision making
Hongsheng SHENG3, Jinghua XU1,2,3, Shuyou ZHANG1,2,3(), Jianrong TAN1,2,3, Kang WANG3
1. State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, Hangzhou 310027, China 2. Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310027, China 3. Engineering Research Center for Design Engineering and Digital Twin of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Selective laser melting (SLM) is a unique additive manufacturing (AM) category that can be used to manufacture mechanical parts. It has been widely used in aerospace and automotive using metal or alloy powder. The build orientation is crucial in AM because it affects the as-built part, including its part accuracy, surface roughness, support structure, and build time and cost. A mechanical part is usually composed of multiple surface features. The surface features carry the production and design knowledge, which can be utilized in SLM fabrication. This study proposes a method to determine the build orientation of multi-feature mechanical parts (MFMPs) in SLM. First, the surface features of an MFMP are recognized and grouped for formulating the particular optimization objectives. Second, the estimation models of involved optimization objectives are established, and a set of alternative build orientations (ABOs) is further obtained by many-objective optimization. Lastly, a multi-objective decision making method integrated by the technique for order of preference by similarity to the ideal solution and cosine similarity measure is presented to select an optimal build orientation from those ABOs. The weights of the feature groups and considered objectives are achieved by a fuzzy analytical hierarchy process. Two case studies are reported to validate the proposed method with numerical results, and the effectiveness comparison is presented. Physical manufacturing is conducted to prove the performance of the proposed method. The measured average sampling surface roughness of the most crucial feature of the bracket in the original orientation and the orientations obtained by the weighted sum model and the proposed method are 15.82, 10.84, and 10.62 μm, respectively. The numerical and physical validation results demonstrate that the proposed method is desirable to determine the build orientations of MFMPs with competitive results in SLM.
Technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution
WSM
Weighted sum model
Variables
Triangular fuzzy number
Positive ideal solution
Negative ideal solution
Area of the grid generated in the projection of the bounding box on the platform
Area of the ith facet
Aplatform
Area of the fabrication platform
Blength
Length of the part’s bounding box along the x-axis
Bwidth
Width of the part’s bounding box along the y-axis
Cbuild
Build cost of an SLM part
Cenergy
Energy cost for building an SLM part
Ci
Relative closeness to the ideal solution of the ith alternative
Normalized relative closeness to the ideal solution of the ith alternative
Indirect build cost of an SLM part
Material cost used for the part, support structure, and wasted material
d
Ordinate of the highest intersection point D between and
Normalized weight of the ith object
Weight of the ith object obtained by the FAHP
Distance of the ith alternative to the positive ideal solution
Distance of the ith alternative to the negative ideal solution
d
Build direction vector
DM
Decision matrix of an MODM problem
Energy consumption rate
Estimation model function of the ith objective
ith facet
WSM evaluation value of one solution
ith object
Height of the jth segment of the ith supported ray
Hatch distance for filling the part
Hatch distance of the lattice support structure
Part’s height
Height between the part and the platform
Integrated MODM evaluation value
Integrated MODM evaluation value of the ith alternative
Number of convex fuzzy numbers
l
Lower bound of a TFN
Edge length of the grid
Lower bound of the TFN
Layer thickness
Lower bound of the TFN Si
m
Most promising value of a TFN
Most promising value of the TFN
Most promising value of the TFN Si
Density of the material
Extent analysis value of the jth factor to the ith object
CSM value between the ith alternative and the positive ideal solution
Normalized CSM value between the ith alternative and the positive ideal solution
Porosity of the material
Fuzzy judgment matrix used in the FAHP
n
Number of the objects
nf
Number of facets of the manifold mesh model
nfg
Number of the feature groups
Number of the facets without supports
Number of the facets with supports
ng
Number of the grids
Number of the grids along the x-axis
Number of the grids along the y-axis
no
Number of the considered objectives
nr
Number of the rays intersected with the overhang facets
Unit normal vector of the ith facet
Value of the ith objective
Maximum value of the ith objective
Minimum value of the ith objective
Energy price
Material price
Number of the factors of one object
Pairwise fuzzy comparison matrix of the feature groups of the ith part
Pairwise fuzzy comparison matrix of the optimization objectives
Normalized value of the jth objective for the ith alternative
Build rate of the part
Build rate of the support
Indirect cost rate
Material waste rate
Average surface roughness of an SLM part
Average surface roughness of the ith feature group
Surface roughness of the ith facet
Surface roughness of the ith supported facet
Weighted average surface roughness of an SLM part
Volume fraction of the lattice support structure
Fuzzy synthetic extent concerning the ith object
Build time of an SLM part
Recoating time of each layer
u
Upper bound of a TFN
Upper bound of the TFN
Upper bound of the TFN Si
Weighted normalized value of the jth objective for the ith alternative
Positive ideal weighted normalized value of the jth objective among all alternatives
Negative ideal weighted normalized value of the jth objective among all alternatives
Laser scanning speed
Support volume of the ith grid
Part volume
Support volume of an SLM part
Vwve
Weighted volumetric error of an SLM part
VE
Volumetric error of an AM part
Volumetric error of the ith feature group
Degree of possibility of a TFN greater than a TFN
Degree of possibility for a convex fuzzy number to be greater than k convex fuzzy numbers
Weight of the ith feature group
Weight of the ith objective
W
Normalized non-fuzzy weight vector
Weight vector of the feature groups of the ith part
Weight vector of the considered objectives
x
Real value
Value of the jth objective for the ith ABO
Angle between the build direction and normal vector of the ith facet
Rotation angle of the part around x-axis
Rotation angle of the part around y-axis
ρ
Coefficient to adjust the relative importance of the TOPSIS and CSM
σ
Weight for the surface roughness calculation of a supported facet
Membership function of the TFN
Membership function of the TFN
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