Additive manufacturing system and method

A method for manufacturing a shoe, the method comprising of:

• receiving, with a computing system, an input related to a defined shoe design;
• determining, with the computing system, a first additive process and a second additive process to additively manufacture the defined shoe design, the first additive process having a varied flow rate of additive material from the second additive process;
• determining, with the computing system, an end-piece path of an end-piece through actuation of an articulation system for each of the first additive process and the second additive process;
• controlling, with the computing system, a print system and the articulation system during the first additive process forming a first section of the shoe, the print system including a first print head that is a melt blowing extruder and a second print head that is a fused deposition modeling (FDM) extruder, the print system extruding the additive material onto an initial surface layer or a sock layer placed on the end-piece;
• and
• controlling, with the computing system, the print system and the articulation system during the second additive process forming a second section of the shoe.

An additive manufacturing system comprising:

• an articulation system comprising an arm operably coupled with an end-piece, the end-piece configured to be heated or cooled to a defined temperature;
• a print system configured to extrude an additive material toward the end-piece;
• and
• a computing system including one or more processors and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, configure the computing system to:
• receive an input related to a defined article design;
• determine one or more additive processes to additively manufacture the defined article design;
• determine an end-piece path through actuation of the articulation system for each of the one or more additive processes;
• and
• control the print system and the articulation system to extrude the additive material from the print system during the one or more additive processes, wherein the additive material includes biodegradable or bio-derived content.