A Method for Metal AM Support Structure Design to Facilitate Removal

For powder bed metal additive manufacturing (AM), additional post-processing for support structure removal is required. However, this removal process is not formally considered during the design of support structures. Therefore, when either manual or CNC milling is required, some support structures may not be easily removed due to tool accessibility. In this research, with STL model as input, tool accessibility is calculated and used to map onto the facets to grow supports that are more amenable to machined removal. It provides a way to combine previous analysis on support layout with additional information to guide suitable setups; ones that consider not only critical angles requiring support but also removability. This work could enable better support designs that will lead to higher throughput of metal AM by reducing effort and expense in post-process machining.