Cylindrical slicing and path planning of propeller in wire and arc additive manufacturing

Purpose The wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is a promising technology, but the parts are mostly manufactured on the plane and along the vertical direction. The purpose of this paper is to propose a cylindrical slicing and manufacturing method. Design/methodology/approach For revolved parts, e.g. blades of a propeller, instead of planes, a series of cylindrical surfaces intersect with the STL model of the part. The generated slicing layers lie on the cylindrical surface, and then these spatial contours are unfolded onto the plane by the use of the cylindrical coordinate system. A deposition system based on an NC machine is established to examine deposition paths. The temperature and stress of part of two deposition orders are analyzed using the finite element method. Findings The scan parallel path and contour offset path are not suitable to fabricate blades directly. The hybrid of two types of paths and the hybrid of skeleton and contour offset paths are capable of forming blades without gaps. Deposition symmetrically can decrease the deformation of the propeller. Originality/value The slicing algorithm is simply implemented and practicable for any parts. The recognition of gaps and supplementary skeleton path can guarantee the full deposition of contour offset paths.