Fabrication system, fabrication estimation system, information processing apparatus, fabricating apparatus, fabricating method, and recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11036203-B2
Application number	US-201916352026-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2019
Priority date	Mar 16, 2018
Publication date	Jun 15, 2021
Grant date	Jun 15, 2021

Abstract

A fabrication system for fabricating a three-dimensional object includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry estimates, according to a fabrication condition and fabrication data, a three-dimensional object to be fabricated according to the fabrication data and corrects the fabrication data according to an estimation result of the three-dimensional object estimated by the processing circuitry.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An information processing apparatus configured to control a fabricating apparatus that fabricates a three-dimensional object, the information processing apparatus comprising:
processing circuitry configured to:
estimate; according to a fabrication condition and fabrication data obtained from model data, dimensions and a warpage of the three-dimensional object to be fabricated according to the fabrication data;
correct at least the model data according to an estimation result of the three-dimensional object estimated by the processing circuitry to increase a dimension of the model data when the three-dimensional object is estimated to be smaller than the model data;
re-estimate the three-dimensional object after the correction; and
proceed with fabrication of the three-dimensional object with the corrected model data.

2. A fabrication system, comprising:
the information processing apparatus according to claim 1 ;
the fabricating device apparatus configured to fabricate the three-dimensional object according to the fabrication data;
a sensor to measure a shape of the three-dimensional object fabricated by the fabricating apparatus; and
a memory to store a measurement result of the shape of the three-dimensional object measured by the sensor, in association with the fabrication data,
wherein the processing circuitry corrects the fabrication data according to the measurement result.

3. The fabrication system according to claim 2 , further comprising:
another fabricating device to fabricate the three-dimensional object according to the fabrication data corrected by the processing circuitry.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate the fabrication data by converting the model data to a format processable by the fabrication apparatus.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to increase the dimension of the model data to reduce a difference between an estimated shape of the three-dimensional object estimated by the processing circuitry and a shape of the model data.

6. A fabrication system comprising:
the information processing apparatus according to claim 1 ;
the fabricating apparatus configured to fabricate the three-dimensional object according to the fabrication data;
a sensor to measure a shape of the three-dimensional object fabricated by the fabricating apparatus; and
a memory to store a measurement result of the shape of the three-dimensional object measured by the sensor, in association with the fabrication data.

7. The fabrication system according to claim 6 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to perform a correction process to correct the model data and the fabrication condition according to the measurement result.

8. The fabrication system according to claim 7 , further comprising:
another processing circuitry to estimate, according to the fabrication condition and the fabrication data, the three-dimensional object to be fabricated according to the fabrication data,
wherein the processing circuitry performs another correction process to correct the model data according to an estimation result of the three-dimensional object estimated by said another processing circuitry.

9. The fabrication system according to claim 8 ,
wherein the processing circuitry switches the correction process and said another correction process.

10. A fabrication system, comprising:
a fabricating apparatus configured to fabricate a three-dimensional object according to fabrication data obtained from model data; and
an information processing apparatus configured to control the fabricating apparatus, the information processing apparatus including processing circuitry configured to:
estimate, according to a fabrication condition and the fabrication data, dimensions and a warpage of the three-dimensional object to be fabricated according to the fabrication data;
correct at least the model data according to an estimation result of the three-dimensional object estimated by the processing circuitry to increase a dimension of the model data when the three-dimensional object is estimated to be smaller than the model data;
re-estimate the three-dimensional object after the correction; and
proceed with fabrication of the three-dimensional object with the corrected model data.

11. The information processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to estimate a shape of the three-dimensional object before fabrication of same to generate estimation data, and to selectively correct the model data based on the estimation data by increasing a dimension of a portion of the three-dimensional object having a rectangular parallelepiped shape.

12. The information processing apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to estimate one or more of a warpage of the shape and an external dimension of the shape to generate the estimation data.

13. The information processing apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to correct the model data when a difference between the estimation data and the model data is greater than or equal to a threshold.

14. The information processing apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine to proceed with fabrication of the three-dimensional object, when the difference between the estimation data and the model data is less than the threshold.

15. The information processing apparatus of claim 13 , wherein, after correcting the model data, the processing circuitry is configured to re-estimate the shape of the three-dimensional object before fabrication of same to update the estimation data.

Assignees

• Sugawara Wataru
• Maeda Hiroshi
• Takeyama Yoshinobu
• Matsuoka Tsukasa
• Ito Yoichi
• Nagatsuka Shingo
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Sugawara Wataru
• Maeda Hiroshi
• Takeyama Yoshinobu
• Matsuoka Tsukasa
• Ito Yoichi
• Nagatsuka Shingo

Classifications

• B33Y50/02

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• G05B19/4099 Primary

  Surface or curve machining, making three-dimensional [3D] objects, e.g. desktop manufacturing · CPC title

• G06F30/20

  Design optimisation, verification or simulation (optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30) · CPC title

• G05B2219/49023

  3-D printing, layer of powder, add drops of binder in layer, new powder · CPC title

• G01B11/24 Primary

  for measuring contours or curvatures · CPC title