Systems and methods for implementing three dimensional (3D) object, part and component manufacture including displacement/vibration welded or heat staked laminates

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10046547-B2
Application number	US-201514949908-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 24, 2015
Priority date	Nov 24, 2015
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

A system and method are provided for implementing relatively low temperature joining processes, including displacement/vibration welding techniques and/or heat staking techniques, in a process of building up laminate layers to form and/or manufacture three-dimensional objects, parts and components in additive material (AM) manufacturing systems. A multi-stage 3D object forming scheme is described involving steps of laminate cutting (with lasers or other cutting devices); laminate transport between processing stations (including using one or more of conveyors, robotic pick and place devices and the like); laminate stacking, clamping and adhering through comparatively low temperature welding or other mechanical joining (including displacement/vibration welding or heat staking); and mechanical surface finishing (via CNC machining or other comparable process).

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for implementing object manufacturing, comprising:
cutting, under processor control, two-dimensional (2D) slices from sheets of material with a laminate cutter, each of the 2D slices constituting an individual layer among a plurality of layers forming an in-process three-dimensional (3D) object;
transporting each of the cut 2D slices from the laminate cutter to a 3D object build platform with a transport mechanism to form the plurality of layers of the in-process 3D object on the build platform;
executing a processor-controlled layer-to-layer adhering process with a layer-to-layer adhering unit associated with the 3D object build platform that affixes each of the 2D slices in sequence to form the plurality of layers of the in-process 3D object; and
surface finishing the in-process 3D object to produce a finished 3D object,
wherein a processor is programmed to:
reference 3D object modeling data;
parse the referenced 3D object modeling data into instructions for controlling the laminate cutter for cutting each of the 2D slices from the sheets of material;
control a layer by layer 2D slice cutting, transporting and adhering process to produce the in-process 3D object from the plurality of layers; and
control the surface finishing device to finish the surface of the in-process 3D object.

2. The method of claim 1 , the processor referencing a data storage memory medium storing the 3D object modeling data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the laminate cutter comprises one of a laser cutter, a mechanical milling cutter, a mechanical blade cutter and a waterjet cutter,
the transport mechanism comprises a robotic pick and place device, and
the surface finishing device comprises a multi-axis Computer Numerical Control (CNC) milling machine.

4. The method of claim 1 , the processor-controlled layer-to-layer adhering process comprising at least one of a displacement welding and vibration welding process in which energy directors are applied between pairs of 2D slices and the pairs of 2D slices are the at least one of a displacement welded and vibration welded together at the positions of the energy directors.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising applying the energy directors in one of a fused deposition modelling and a multi jet modelling process.

6. The method of claim 1 , the processor-controlled layer-to-layer adhering process comprising a heat staking process in which (1) a plurality of bosses are formed on a first 2D slice, (2) a plurality of cooperating through features are cut in a second 2D slice, (3) the first 2D slice and the second 2D slice are brought together on the 3D object build platform in a manner that the plurality of bosses protrude through the plurality of through features; and (4) and pressure is applied to the bosses to heat stake the first and second 2D slices together.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising applying the plurality of bosses in one of a fused deposition modelling and a multi jet modelling process.

Assignees

• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Moore Steven R
• Islam Abu Saeed
• Smith Bruce H

Classifications

• B32B37/06

  characterised by the heating method · CPC title

• B33Y30/00

  Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor · CPC title

• B29C64/188

  involving additional operations performed on the added layers, e.g. smoothing, grinding or thickness control (surface shaping B29C59/00; after-treatment of articles without altering their shape B29C71/00) · CPC title

• B32B37/04

  characterised by the partial melting of at least one layer · CPC title

• B29C64/205

  Means for applying layers · CPC title