The purpose of this paper is to develop a toolpath-driven parametric design methodology for additively manufactured continuous carbon fibre-reinforced lattice structures to overcome design difficulties from fibre deposition constraints, enable reinforcement of cellular architectures, and incorporate manufacturing limitations and fibre-orientation control.
An integrated workflow combines evolutionary computation and parametric mapping to optimise four key variables – unit cell size, infill size, deposition direction and material ratio. The workflow also guides reinforcement using a shortest-path algorithm that directly generates continuous, printer-ready toolpaths bypassing conventional slicing steps. The framework was implemented using in-house computational tools and validated by fabricating hexagonal lattice specimens printed with continuous carbon fibre; results were compared to parts produced using commercial slicers for mechanical performance and surface finish.
The toolpath-driven approach preserves fibre continuity and enables explicit orientation control while embedding manufacturing constraints into the design loop. Fabricated hexagonal lattice specimens printed with the proposed method exhibited improved stiffness and better surface finish than equivalent parts produced with conventional slicers. The framework streamlines the digital chain by outputting ready-to-print toolpaths, reducing process-induced fibre interruptions and enabling property customisation via geometric and material parameters.
This work progresses beyond conventional reinforcement of solids or beam geometries by coupling cellular-architecture design with process-aware toolpath generation. Eliminating the slicing stage and embedding manufacturing constraints in the workflow provides a unified design-to-process pipeline for composite lattice printing.
