Dimensional compensations for additive manufacturing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10974458-B2
Application number	US-201916246046-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 11, 2019
Priority date	Jan 11, 2019
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

In an example, a method includes receiving, at at least one processor, object model data representing at least a portion of an object that is to be generated by an additive manufacturing apparatus by fusing build material within a fabrication chamber. An intended object placement location within the fabrication chamber may be determined, and a dimensional compensation to apply to the object model data may be determined using a mapping resource relating dimensional compensations to object placement locations. The determined dimensional compensation may be applied to the object model data to generate modified object model data using at least one processor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving object model data representing an object to be generated by an additive manufacturing apparatus by thermally fusing build material within a fabrication chamber;
determining an indication of an intended object placement location within the fabrication chamber;
determining a dimensional compensation to apply to the object model data, the dimensional compensation to compensate for an anticipated departure from an intended dimension that occurs during generation of the object, the dimensional compensation determined based on thermal conditions of the fabrication chamber at the intended object placement location, the determining including using a mapping resource relating dimensional compensations to object placement locations within the fabrication chamber; and
applying the determined dimensional compensation to the object model data to generate modified object model data.

2. A method according to claim 1 in which determining an intended object placement location within the fabrication chamber comprises determining a point location indicative of the intended object placement;
determining, from the mapping resource, a plurality of dimensional compensation values relating to locations which enclose the point location; and
determining a dimensional compensation by determining a weighted average of the plurality of dimensional compensation values.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the point location is indicative of a centre point of the object when the object is in its intended location within the fabrication chamber.

4. A method according to claim 1 in which the dimensional compensation specifies at least one of a scaling factor and an offset factor.

5. A method according to claim 4 in which the dimensional compensation comprises three scaling factors and three offset factors, where in each of the scaling factors and each of the offset factors is associated with one of three orthogonal axes.

6. A method according to claim 1 further comprising determining object generation instructions for generating the object, the object generation instructions specifying an amount of print agent to be applied to each of a plurality of locations on a layer of build material.

7. A method according to claim 6 further comprising generating an object based on the object generation instructions.

8. Apparatus comprising processing circuitry comprising:
a mapping resource associating parametrical transformations to object placement locations within a fabrication chamber of an additive manufacturing apparatus, the parametrical transformations to compensate for object deformation related to thermal conditions during generation of objects by a thermal fusing process within the fabrication chamber at the object placement locations; and
a model modification module to determine at least one parametrical transformation for object model data describing an object to be generated using the thermal fusing process, wherein the parametrical transformation is determined from the mapping resource based on an intended placement of the object within the fabrication chamber, wherein the model modification module is further to modify the object model data using the parametrical transformation.

9. Apparatus according to claim 8 in which the mapping resource comprises a set of parametrical transformation values associated with distributed spatial locations within the fabrication chamber.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9 in which the distributed spatial locations are evenly distributed in space.

11. Apparatus according to claim 8 in which the model modification module is to determine the at least one parametrical transformation for the object to be generated using the thermal fusing process from the mapping resource using interpolation.

12. Apparatus according to claim 8 further comprising:
a print instructions module for determining print instructions for generating the object.

13. Apparatus according to claim 12 further comprising additive manufacturing apparatus to generate the object according to control data generated from the modified object model data.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions which when executed by a processor cause the processor to:
determine a representative coordinate of an intended placement location for an object within a fabrication chamber; and
using a look-up resource associating dimensional compensations with each of a plurality of locations in the fabrication chamber, interpolate a dimensional compensation to apply to object model data representing the object based on the representative coordinate, wherein the dimensional compensation is to compensate for an anticipated departure from an intended dimension that occurs during generation of the object by a thermal fusing process, and wherein the dimensional compensation is determined based on thermal conditions of the fabrication chamber at the intended placement location.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium according to claim 14 further comprising instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to apply the interpolated dimensional compensation to a data model representing the object.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Development Co

Inventors

• Sanroma Garrit Jordi
• Gurdiel Gonzalez Enrique
• Diego Gutierrez Victor
• Freire Garcia Manuel

Classifications

• G06F30/00

  Computer-aided design [CAD] · CPC title

• B33Y50/02

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B33Y30/00

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

• B33Y10/00

  Processes of additive manufacturing · CPC title

• B29C64/393 Primary

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title