Design of a Robotic 3D Printing System

Abstract

Additive manufacturing enables the production of complex shapes with a large degree of freedom compared to conventional manufacturing techniques such as injection molding, thermoforming or pressing. In particular, the creation of moving parts, complex structures and large-scale printing remains underexplored and research is constantly expanding. Due to design limitations related to the construction of currently available printers, 3D printing technology is increasingly being combined with robotics. Using a robot to 3D print products eliminates the need to design complex printer structures, which ultimately should simplify the process of manufacturing large-scale products and shorten the time required for preparation and production. The paper deals with the description of the designed 3D printing system and the procedure of the steps of creating a robotic simulation model with the generation of a control program for the FDM 3D printing process by an industrial robot.