316 results about "Powder bed" patented technology

A device for manufacturing a three-dimensional product, which device comprises a work table on which said three-dimensional product is to be built, a powder dispenser which is arranged to lay down a thin layer of powder on the work table for the formation of a powder bed, a ray gun for giving off energy to the powder whereby fusion of the powder takes place, members for controlling of the beam released by the ray gun across said powder bed for the formation of a cross section of said three-dimensional product through fusion of parts of said powder bed, and a controlling computer in which information about successive cross sections of the three-dimensional product is stored, which cross sections build the three-dimensional product, the controlling computer intended to control said members for guiding the ray gun across the powder bed according to a running schedule forming a cross section of said three-dimensional body, whereby said three-dimensional product is formed by successive fusion of successively formed cross sections from powder layers successively laid down by the powder dispenser.

Various embodiments provide a method and apparatus for forming a three-dimensional article through successive fusion of parts of at least one layer of a powder bed provided on a work table in an additive manufacturing machine, which parts corresponds to successive cross sections of the three-dimensional article. The method comprises the steps of: applying a layer of predetermined thickness of powder particles on the work table, applying a coating on at least a portion of the powder particles, which coating is at least partially covering the powder particles, and fusing the powder particles on the work table with an electron beam.

An additive layer manufacturing method includes the steps of: a) laying down powder layer on powder bed, and b) focussing energy on an area of powder layer to fuse area of powder layer and thereby form a cross-section of the product; wherein steps a) and b) are repeated to form successive cross-sections of product, and wherein at least one of said steps b) involves focussing energy on an area of respective powder layer which is unsupported by a previously formed cross-section of product to thereby form a downwardly facing surface of product. Method is at least some of said successive steps b) involve focussing energy on a support area of respective powder layer, to fuse support area and thereby form successive cross-sections of a support pin within powder bed, support pin extending outwardly from downwardly facing surface of product when it is formed, so as to support downwardly facing surface.

A method for increasing the resolution when forming a three-dimensional article through successive fusion of parts of a powder bed, said method comprising providing a vacuum chamber, providing an electron gun, providing a first powder layer on a work table inside said vacuum chamber, directing an electron beam from said electron gun over said work table causing the powder layer to fuse in selected locations to form a first cross section of said three-dimensional article, providing a second powder layer on said work table, directing the electron beam over said work table causing said second powder layer to fuse in selected locations to form a second cross section of said three-dimensional article, reducing the pressure in the vacuum chamber from a first pressure level to a second pressure level between the providing of said first powder layer and said second powder layer.

The invention discloses equipment for manufacturing a large-size metal part in a high energy beam additive manufacturing mode and a control method of the equipment. The equipment comprises a work cavity, a worktable, a control system, a high energy beam scanning generator, a powder storage hopper, a powder laying device and a gas purification module, wherein the worktable is composed of a forming cylinder and a powder recycling cylinder, and the upper surface of the forming cylinder and the upper surface of the powder recycling cylinder are coplanar and form a work plane. The control system controls the high energy beam scanning generator and the powder laying device to move opposite to the worktable in the powder laying direction. The equipment for manufacturing the large-size metal part in the high energy beam additive manufacturing mode and the control method of the equipment largely shorten the waiting time caused by pre-installation of a powder bed when a common laser / electron beam selective melting technology is used for processing a part, thereby obviously improving the forming efficiency of high energy beam additive manufacturing. Through the application of the equipment for manufacturing the large-size metal part in the high energy beam additive manufacturing mode and the control method of the equipment, a metal part with a meter-grade size, high performance, high accuracy and a complex structure can be manufactured efficiently and rapidly.

A method for forming a three-dimensional article through successive fusion of parts of a powder bed, which parts corresponds to successive cross sections of the three-dimensional article, said method comprising the steps of: providing a model of said three dimensional article, providing a first powder layer on a work table, directing a first energy beam from a first energy beam source over said work table causing said first powder layer to fuse in first selected locations according to said model to form a first cross section of said three-dimensional article, directing a second energy beam from a second energy beam source over said work table causing said first powder layer to fuse in second selected locations according to said model to form the first cross section of said three-dimensional article, wherein said first and second locations of said first powder layer are at least partially overlapping each other.

An apparatus for continuous powder-based additive manufacturing of a large annular object or multiple smaller objects simultaneously is described. The build unit(s) of the apparatus includes a powder delivery mechanism, a powder recoating mechanism and an irradiation beam directing mechanism. The build unit(s) is attached to a rotating mechanism such that the build unit(s) rotates around and above the annular powder bed during production. The rotating mechanism is supported onto a central tower, and both the rotating mechanism and the tower are concentric with the non-rotating annular powder bed. An additive manufacturing method using the apparatus involves repetitive and continuous cycles of at least simultaneously rotating the build unit(s) to deposit powder onto the powder bed and irradiating the powder to form a fused additive layer. The continuous additive manufacturing process may be further aided with a helical configuration of the powder bed build surface.

The invention describes a method for achieving manufacturing of a three-dimensional object by conducting layer-by-layer scanning on a powder layer through an energy bundle. The method comprises the steps that a powder material layer is paved on a base plate or a cured layer, so that the powder layer is formed; part of or more areas of the powder layer are preheated through a preheating light beam, so that the temperature of powder in the preheated areas reaches a set value, wherein setting of the preheating light beam is matched with absorption efficiency of the powder; selective scanning is conducted on the corresponding cross section positions, in the preheated areas, of the three-dimensional object through the energy bundle, and curing of the powder layer is completed, wherein the preheating light beam is a laser beam with the single wave length; and after homogenization is conducted and the light beam uniform in energy distribution is formed and diverged, preheating is conducted on the preheated areas. By means of the method, a powder material adopted in the powder bed additive manufacturing technology can be preheated rapidly and efficiently, and thus the temperature difference generated between the three-dimensional object and the surrounding environment when the three-dimensional object is manufactured is reduced; generation of internal stress is reduced; and manufacturing quality of the three-dimensional object is improved.

The invention provides a preheating method and device suitable for powder laying type additive manufacturing, and belongs to the technical field of additive manufacturing. A movable type plane heating plate capable of covering a whole powder bed is arranged over the powder bed, the mounting height of the plane heating plate is slightly larger than a powder laying device, in the powder laying process, the powder bed and parts are preheated, after powder laying is finished, a plane light source is closed and put away, and the phenomenon that in the machining process, the plane heating plate blocks a high-energy beam is avoided. In the heating process, a temperature measuring sensor is used for monitoring the temperature of the powder bed in real time, a control system is adopted to implement feedback control over preheating of the powder bed according to the temperature monitoring result, full-breadth covering type heating is adopted, and the powder bed and formed parts are subject to high-temperature, efficient and unifier preheating. The invention further provides the device achieving the above method. The method is wide in application material and high in expansibility and is particularly suitable for powder laying type additive manufacturing of multiple large-breadth high-energy beams.

The invention refers to a method for selective laser melting additive manufacturing a three-dimensional metallic or ceramic article / component entirely or partly, comprising the steps of successively building up said article / component layer by layer directly from a powder bed of a metallic or ceramic base material by means of remelting the layers with a high energy laser beam, moving repetitively across the areas, which are to be solidified, wherein the movement of the laser beam is made of a superposition of a continuous linear movement and at least one superimposed oscillation with a determined frequency and amplitude and wherein the oscillation is created by a beam deflection device and the same beam deflection device is also used for linear positioning movement.

The invention discloses a laser powder bed melting additive manufacturing molten bath monitoring and pore controlling method. The method includes the steps that (1) a space powder bed three-dimensional geometrical model is established; the powder model is guided into a thermal fluid model, a thermal fluid model of the powder dimension is established, the initial and boundary conditions of computational domains are set, and meshing is performed; a powder bed melting process three-dimensional model governing equation is established, and a molten bath is simulated according to the governing equation and input parameters; (2) three-dimensional profile data, including the molten bath depth, width and length, of the molten bath are extracted according to the solidus temperature and the mesh temperature of powder and a base material at each time step; and (3) a final scanning interval is obtained according to the three-dimensional profile data of the molten bath, and an ultimate molten bath is simulated according to the governing equation, the input parameters of the step (1) and the final scanning interval. In view of the difficulties of long time and high cost of the powder bed meltingexperimental research, the reliability of a solution can be evaluated, the research and development cost can be reduced, and the forming parameters are optimized.

The invention relates to an arrangement for the production of a three-dimensional product, which arrangement comprises a work bench on which the said three-dimensional product is to be constructed, a powder dispenser which is arranged to apply a thin layer of powder onto the work bench to create a powder bed, an irradiation gun for transmitting energy to the powder so that melting of the powder takes place, the arrangement comprising a casing within which the pressure is reduced in relation to the atmospheric pressure and within which the work bench and the irradiation gun are located, with the powder dispenser, or a supply pipe connected to the powder dispenser, being arranged partially outside the casing.

The invention discloses a multi-material powder supplying and laying device for powder bed melting and a control method of the multi-material powder supplying and laying device. A plurality of powderinlets are formed in the upper end of a main powder storage tank, an independent sub-powder storage tank is installed at each powder inlet, and powder in the sub-powder storage tanks are premixed by the main powder storage tank, then a powder mixer in a powder mixing device is used for mixing the premixed mixture, the main powder storage tank and the powder mixing device are adopted for premixingand sufficient mixing respectively, the powder mixing device serves as a buffer section, the powder mixing printing efficiency is improved, and meanwhile printing materials of different mixing contents and types can be added through the plurality of sub-powder storage tanks; and a printing moving frame is used for driving a powder spray head to spray powder, manufacturing of a functionally gradedmaterial and a multi-component alloy / high-entropy alloy-based composite material with components continuously changing in any direction is achieved, long powder mixing time is saved, real-time powderlaying and real-time machining can be achieved, the production cycle is greatly shortened, the production cost is greatly reduced, and the production efficiency is improved.

A powder bed fusion apparatus in which an object is built in a layer-by-layer manner. The apparatus includes a build sleeve, a build platform for supporting a powder bed and the build platform lowerable in the build sleeve. A heating element is integrated in or located on the build platform or the build sleeve. A seal is provided for sealing a gap between the build platform and the build sleeve to prevent powder from passing through the gap. A build chamber is provided for maintaining an inert atmosphere both above and below the build platform.

The invention belongs to the technical field of additive manufacturing, and relates to a powder bed synchronous heating and melting additive manufacturing method which is used for realizing material additive manufacturing under the conditions of a vacuum environment and a high powder bed temperature. According to the method, synchronous electron beam heating is carried out on a non-part section area while selective melting deposition is carried out to form a part section, the powder bed temperature at the non-part section area is kept, large fluctuation of the powder bed temperature is avoided, and it is guaranteed that the staying time of electron beams in unit areas of different positions of a powder bed is equal, so that the energy densities of the electron beams received at the different positions of a preheating area are equal, the temperatures at different positions of the preheating area are uniform, the stability and consistency of the key technological parameter of the powderbed temperature in a powder bed melting technology are enhanced, the thermal stress of the formed part is reduced, the consistency of the performance of the formed part is improved, and conditions arecreated for additive manufacturing of refractory, difficult-to-weld and brittle materials.

Detection and classification of anomalies for powder bed metal additive manufacturing. Anomalies, such as recoater blade impacts, binder deposition issues, spatter generation, and some porosities, are surface-visible at each layer of the building process. A multi-scaled parallel dynamic segmentation convolutional neural network architecture provides additive manufacturing machine and imaging system agnostic pixel-wise semantic segmentation of layer-wise powder bed image data. Learned knowledge is easily transferrable between different additive manufacturing machines. The anomaly detection can be conducted in real-time and provides accurate and generalizable results.

The disclosure relates to an apparatus (10) for manufacturing a metallic component (C), and corresponding methods. The apparatus (10) may include a build plate (26) with a build surface (36) and an aperture (38). The apparatus (10) may also include an actuator (55) operably to translate a metallic component (C) such that an end portion of the metallic component (C) is positioned within the aperture (38) of the build plate (26) and below the build surface (36). The apparatus (10) may further include a seal (28) coupled within the aperture (38) of the build plate (26) and configured to engage the end portion of the metallic component (C). The aperture (38) of the build plate (26), the seal (28), and the end portion of the metallic component (C) may cooperate to form a powder bed (60) to hold metallic powder (P) therein. The apparatus (10) may also include an external heat control mechanism (30) operable to form a predetermined temperature profile of the end portion of the component (C) to prevent cracking of the component (C).

The invention relates to a large laser selection melting forming dust removal scanning device and method. The device includes a plurality of blowing and suction air port units with the same structure,a scraper, a powder bed surface and dynamic focusing vibration mirror groups for the division and scanning of forming areas. The dynamic focusing vibration mirror groups are evenly distributed in multiple columns in the direction of the scraper movement, and the blowing and suction air port units are arranged under each column of the dynamic focusing vibration mirror groups. The blowing and suction air port units include air blowing ports and air suction ports, and the air blowing ports and the air suction ports are connected with an external dust removal filtration system; and air port movement brackets for the support of the blowing and suction air port units, vertical movement guide rails for the vertical movement of the air port movement brackets and horizontal movement guide rails for the horizontal movement of the air port movement brackets are further included, and the blowing and suction air port units are evenly distributed on the air port movement brackets in the direction of the scraper movement. The large laser selection melting forming dust removal scanning device and method can guarantee the forming quality and process consistency of parts, the equipment can run steadily for a long time, and at the same time, the forming efficiency of the equipment is improved.

The invention provides a method for predicting interlayer thermal stress distribution in the selective laser melting process based on COMSOL. The method comprises the following steps: S1, constructing a three-dimensional solid heat transfer and structural mechanics transient model based on COMSOL; s2, determining parameters in a simulation process; s3, determining the material attribute of the powder to be melted; s4, determining moving Gaussian heat source parameters; s5, constructing a geometric model of the powder bed; s6, achieving layer-by-layer manufacturing of selective laser melting; s7, carrying out grid division and calculating node temperature; and S8, predicting interlayer thermal stress distribution and residual thermal stress distribution according to a result of the step S7. According to the method, the laser heat source effect in the machining process is simulated through a moving Gaussian heat source mold, and a powder bed is replaced with a uniform material powder bed; in addition, the structural mechanics module is used for simulating the thermal stress generated by the layer and the deformation condition of a workpiece when the structural mechanics module moves along with a heat source, the layer-by-layer manufacturing process of the selective laser melting technology is simulated, and prediction of thermal stress among multiple layers and residual thermal stress is achieved.

A powder bed fusion apparatus for building an object in a layer-by-layer manner includes a build platform movable within a build sleeve to define a build volume, a layer formation device for forming layers of powder across the build volume in a working plane and an irradiation device for irradiating powder in the working plane to selectively fuse the powder. The powder bed fusion apparatus further includes a mechanical manipulator arranged to engage with the object and / or a build substrate, to which the object is attached, to tilt the object in a raised position above the working plane such that powder is freed from the object and deposited at a location above the working plane and / or into the build volume.

An additive manufacturing system includes at least one imaging device configured to direct electromagnetic radiation towards a build layer of a component positioned within a powder bed of the additive manufacturing system. The additive manufacturing system also includes at least one detector configured to detect the electromagnetic radiation that reflects from the build layer.

The invention discloses an in situ real-time measurement device used in a powder bed melting additive manufacturing process. A thermocouple of the device is arranged at a position, where temperature needs to be measured, on a substrate, and a displacement sensor is in contact with the lower surface of the substrate, so that the displacement sensor can measure deformation of the substrate in the additive manufacturing process. The device disclosed by the invention can realize in situ real-time monitoring on thermal-deformation (or temperature) of the substrate and a formed part in the powder bed melting additive manufacturing process, can accurately reflect evolution rules of the thermal-deformation (or temperature) of the substrate along with time, not only provides a reliable experimentalmeasurement basis for studying a deformation mechanism of the substrate and the formed part in the powder bed melting additive manufacturing process, but also provides powerful experimental data forfinite element simulation on powder bed melting additive manufacturing and finally lays a foundation for establishing a technique of effectively controlling deformation of the substrate and the formedpart as well as obtaining a high-precision and high-performance formed part.

A process for producing a solid pharmaceutical dosage formulation, said process comprising powder bed fusion selective laser 3-dimensional printing of a mixture comprising: (a)a drug; and (b)an excipient; whereinat least one of said drug and said excipient absorbs electromagnetic radiation at a wavelength emitted by the laser; or (a)a drug; (b)an excipient; and (c)an absorbent material which absorbs electromagnetic radiation at a wavelength emitted by the laser.

The invention discloses an additive-manufactured porous tantalum metal acetabular outer cup and a preparation method thereof. 50% or above of the volume of the porous tantalum acetabular outer cup adopts a porous structure, the average pore size is 200-2000 [mu]m, the average wire diameter is 300-1000 [mu]m, the porosity is 50-95%, the pore connectivity is larger than 80%, the porous structure penetrates through a whole semispherical shell cup, the thickness is larger than 3 mm, and one or more screw holes are formed in the porous structure; the porous tantalum metal acetabular outer cup is integrally prepared by additive manufacturing technologies such as powder bed laser melting or electron beam melting with pure tantalum metal or tantalum alloy powder as a raw material, and the particlesize of raw material powder is 10-150 [mu]m; the rim of the porous tantalum acetabular outer cup is of a compact structure, the thickness is larger than 1 mm, and three or more clamping grooves are uniformly distributed in the inner side of the compact structure. The tantalum metal acetabular outer cup has the technical advantages as follows: the porous structure of the tantalum metal cup has mechanical properties close to those of human bone and facilitates rapid bone growth to form biological fixation and improve implantation stability.

The present disclosure generally relates to methods for additive manufacturing (AM) that utilize spoke support structures in the process of building objects, as well as novel spoke support structures to be used within these AM processes. The object includes a first portion and a second portion. A first distal end of the first portion is separated from a second distal end of the second portion by a portion of unfused powder. At least one support structure connects the first distal end to the second distal end. The method includes removing the object and the support structure from the powder bed. The method includes heat treating the object and the support structure. The support structure maintains dimensional stability of the object during the heat treatment. The method includes machining away the support structure from the first distal end and the second distal end after the heat treatment.