Development of A Hybrid Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing System Based on Selective Laser Melting and High Speed Machining

Selective laser melting is a kind of additive manufacturing method which is suitable for the forming of complex metal parts. However, for parts with high size and surface quality requirements, subsequent subtractive processing is often required after additive forming. Moreover, for the parts which have features of inner cavities and deep holes, it is difficult to use the traditional method of subtractive manufacturing after additive manufacturing. A hybrid manufacturing system based on selective laser melting and high-speed machining was developed to realize the alternative hybrid additive and subtractive manufacturing. A process planning method of adding or decreasing materials based on this system was also proposed. A swift experimental method was used to preliminarily determine the range of selective laser melting processing parameters, and the feasibility to process complex curved surface parts by using this system was verified by hybrid manufacturing experiments. It is also found that the machining process has surface planarization effect, which can reduce the wear of elastic scraper effectively.