Adaptive crosshatch approach for the laminated object manufacturing (LOM) process

The waste material removal process of laminated object manufacturing (LOM), so-called 'decubing', is a labour-intensive and time-consuming work resulting from the commonly used uniform crosshatch setting. An adaptive crosshatch approach to improve working efficiency and alleviate the effort involved in the decubing process is developed. The working region is divided into two portions, the inner region and the outer region, by the proposed rectangle and original contour offset approaches. The fine crosshatch pattern is designated to the inner region based on the shape of the cross-section contour, and the rules to select crosshatches for different shapes are given. The outer region has a coarse crosshatch pattern, and it is an integer multiple of that of the inner region. The brick-layered effect in the overlap zone of the waste material is eliminated by the projection method. Experiments show that with the adaptive crosshatch approach there are four major advantages: saving laser power consumption, protecting the part from damage, improving machining efficiency and easier decubing.