Development of Guidelines for Support Structure Design and Placement in Metal Additive Manufacturing
Date of Award
August 2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Mechanical Engineering
Committee Member
Garrett J Pataky
Committee Member
Geetha Chimata
Abstract
Support structures used in metal additive manufacturing (AM) have traditionally been used to overcome process limitations. A new approach explored in this study used novel design and placement of support structures to reduce part deformation. First, a case study was conducted with a simple production part at a major OEM. Changing the support structures used in the print reduced the average deformation by up to 21% and the maximum deformation by up to 24%. Once this opportunity for customized support structure design was established, interviews with AM engineers were used to identify the most common challenge features that would benefit from support design: bottom surface, hole, roof, and overhang. Supports were designed for these features using a mechanical analysis, print simulation, and test print. The advanced support strategies showed multiple levels of success, with the bottom surface showing up to a 6% reduction in maximum deformation, the overhang experiencing up to a 11.21% reduction in average deformation, the hole reducing average deformation by up to 24.59%, and the roof showing up to a 32.10% reduction in average deformation. Guidelines with a geometry definition, support design envelope, and example support solution were created for each of the four challenge geometries and used to support a crank plate containing the four geometries. In print simulations of the crank plate, the varied advanced supports reduced maximum part deformation by 14.6% compared to the constant baselines supports. Finally, a general method for generating AM guidelines was created.
Recommended Citation
Morand, Lucas M., "Development of Guidelines for Support Structure Design and Placement in Metal Additive Manufacturing" (2021). All Theses. 3574.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3574