Support structures are necessary for many AM (additive manufacturing) processes to maintain the overhanging areas or resist deformation caused by thermal stress in printing. The design of support structures affects not only the printing quality but also material consumption and post-processing time. Current research had proposed many support structure designs and optimization methods to meet varying optimization requirements. However, no research has investigated yet how to determine the support points, or contact points for optimal support design. The number and position of support points will directly affect the support structure’s performance and volume, and therefore the final printing quality. To fill this gap, this paper proposes a determination method, which integrates overhang detection, analysis of periodic support point patterns and AM constraints to optimize support point distribution with ensured manufacturability. It is particularly critical for complex and porous structures in medical applications. The proposed method is illustrated and validated through a complex dental component. It can be used with support structure design methods to further improve the support structure performance and reduce support volume in printing, especially for metallic AM processes.

许多 AM（增材制造）工艺都需要支撑结构，以保持悬垂区域或抵抗印刷中由热应力引起的变形。支撑结构的设计不仅会影响打印质量，还会影响材料消耗和后处理时间。目前的研究提出了许多支撑结构设计和优化方法，以满足不同的优化要求。然而，还没有研究调查如何确定支撑点或接触点以实现最佳支撑设计。支撑点的数量和位置将直接影响支撑结构的性能和体积，进而影响最终的印刷质量。为了填补这一空白，本文提出了一种确定方法，它集成了悬垂检测、分析周期性支撑点模式和 AM 约束，以在确保可制造性的情况下优化支撑点分布。它对于医疗应用中的复杂多孔结构尤为重要。所提出的方法通过复杂的牙科组件进行了说明和验证。它可以与支撑结构设计方法一起使用，以进一步提高支撑结构性能并减少印刷中的支撑体积，特别是对于金属增材制造工艺。