Calculation and verification of rotation angle of a four-axis hotwire cutter for transfer-type variable lamination manufacturing using expandable polystyrene foam

Most rapid prototyping (RP) processes adopt a solid CAD model sliced into thin layers of constant thickness in the building direction. Each cross-sectional layer is successively deposited and, simultaneously, bonded onto the previous layer; eventually the stacked layers form a physical part of the model. A new RP process called the Transfer-type Variable Lamination Manufacturing process using expandable polystyrene foam sheet (VLM-ST) has been developed to reduce building time and to improve the surface finish of parts with thick layers and sloping surfaces. The objective of this study is to develop a method for calculating the rotation angles (theta(x), theta(y)) of a linear hotwire cutter in the three-dimensional space for the VLM-ST process using inverse kinematics. The method for calculating the rotation angles (theta(x), theta(y)) of the four-axis hotwire cutter to VLM-ST was applied and verified for a variety of free surface bodies.