Tutor : Ioanna Mitropoulo

Non-planar layered printing enables us to control the layer configurations so that we can print shapes that we cannot print with traditional flat layered printing such as branching structures, or overhanging shapes without any support structure. A significant obstacle to the use of non-planar print paths is the complexity of their design, which calls for new techniques and methodologies that facilitate this task. And in many cases, such as printing a large structure, we need to segment the object into smaller pieces to fit them within printing area.In this research, we propose the segmentation strategy using non-planar boundaries which can create several different kind of layer configurations in one object by distance calculation along the object surface. Through many prototypes using FDM robotic printing, we explored functional and aesthetic aspects of layers, as well as how the orientation of printing paths can be used to an advantage for the task of segmentation.