Method and apparatus for manufacturing porous three-dimensional articles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11141790-B2
Application number	US-201816166805-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 22, 2018
Priority date	Dec 28, 2011
Publication date	Oct 12, 2021
Grant date	Oct 12, 2021

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for manufacturing three-dimensional articles with porosity. A model is created of a porous structure, said creating step comprising the steps of: defining a three-dimensional space comprising a predetermined pattern of nodes, wherein said nodes are connected together in a predetermined manner with struts, moving each node in said three-dimensional space a randomized distance, which distance is less than a predetermined value and in a randomized direction, slicing said three-dimensional space into a predetermined number of two-dimensional layers with a predetermined thickness, slicing said three-dimensional article into two-dimensional layers with a predetermined thickness, applying one two-dimensional layer of said article on one two-dimensional layer of said porous structure resulting in a porous two-dimensional layer of said article, repeating said applying step for all two dimensional layers of said article, manufacturing the three-dimensional article with porosity according to the model by exposing fusible material to an energy source.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions embodied therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising one or more executable portions configured for:
creating a model of a non-porous three-dimensional article comprising a predetermined number of layers with a predetermined thickness;
creating a model of a porous structure, said creating step comprising the steps of:
defining a completely randomized three-dimensional space comprising a randomized arrangement of nodes, said randomized arrangement of nodes defined by the steps of:
a. identifying a predetermined number of said nodes initially arranged randomly in the three-dimensional space of predetermined size;
b. determining a maximum number of neighbor nodes to a specific node;
c. skipping a number x of closest neighbors to said specific node where x is a random integer number being ≥0;
d. connecting each of said maximum neighbor nodes, with the exception of the skipped nodes, to said specific node with a strut; and
e. repeating steps a-d for each node in the three-dimensional space,
wherein said randomized arrangement of nodes lacks periodicity, such that due to the lacking periodicity, a mechanical strength of a porous structure created therefrom is equal in all directions;

slicing said completely randomized three-dimensional space into a predetermined number of layers with a predetermined thickness;
applying one layer of said model of the non-porous three-dimensional article on one layer of said randomized three-dimensional space resulting in a model of a porous layer of said porous three-dimensional article; and
repeating said applying step for all layers of said model of the non-porous three-dimensional article; and

manufacturing the porous three-dimensional article by selectively exposing fusible material to an energy source, so that a layer of fused material corresponds to the model of the porous layer of said porous three-dimensional article.

2. The computer program product according to claim 1 , wherein the manufacturing step comprises the one or more executable portions being configured for executing the sub-steps of:
distributing a layer of powder material on a build platform; and
adapting a thickness of the provided powder material layer to the predetermined thickness of the layer of the porous three-dimensional article.

3. The computer program product according to claim 2 , wherein said powder material is made of metal.

4. The computer program product according to claim 1 , wherein said energy source is an electron beam source.

5. The computer program product according to claim 1 , wherein the randomized arrangement comprises at least a first strut passing through a node and having a continuous derivative to at least a second strut passing through said node.

6. The computer program product according to claim 1 , wherein the energy source comprises a laser.

7. The computer program product according to claim 1 , wherein the step of creating the model of the porous structure is executed subsequent to the step of creating the model of the non-porous three-dimensional article.

8. The computer program product according to claim 1 , wherein said nodes are connected together in the randomized arrangement using struts.

9. The computer program product according to claim 1 , wherein said randomized arrangement is randomized in every direction of the completely randomized three-dimensional space.

10. The computer program product according to claim 1 , wherein said porous three-dimensional article lacks periodicity.

Assignees

• Arcam Ab

Inventors

• Hellestam Calle
• Olsson Jenny
• Elfstroem Isak

Classifications

• B22F12/55

  Two or more means for feeding material · CPC title

• B22F12/52

  Hoppers · CPC title

• B22F10/80

  Data acquisition or data processing · CPC title

• B22F10/32

  of the atmosphere, e.g. composition or pressure in a building chamber · CPC title

• B22F10/36

  of energy beam parameters · CPC title