Part Separation Methods for Assembly Based Design in Additive Manufacturing

The goal of this study is to develop a heuristic part separation algorithm for assembly-based design in Additive Manufacturing (AM). The objective is to minimize the total processing time including both buildup time and assembly time. In the proposed algorithm, the part separation is recursively conducted until the number of assemblies reaches a threshold value. The proposed method helps designers determine the proper number of assemblies and their buildup orientations. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the application of the algorithm.