A novel slicing strategy for continuous printing with a helix 3D printer

Additive manufacturing is an essential solution in the production of parts. Model slicing is an important step of the 3D printing process. The slicing of the layers is the core part of the additive manufacturing because it transforms the 3D model to a 2D profile layer for the printer to manufacture. A novel machine architecture deposits with a helical path. The helical architecture provides a continuous rotation that allows printing continuously without any interruption. Therefore there are no more starting and ending point at each layer. This paper proposes a slicing method compatible with this type of machine. Continuous printing is made as a function of z-level, so at each angle of rotation, the level of z will be incremented. Finally, these disks can be combined as one image to be sent to the ink-jet as a continuous printing. To illustrate this novel slicing methodology a model is sliced.