Plant for additively manufacturing at least one three-dimensional object

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11148203-B2
Application number	US-201916293552-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 5, 2019
Priority date	Nov 10, 2018
Publication date	Oct 19, 2021
Grant date	Oct 19, 2021

Abstract

Plant for additively manufacturing at least one three-dimensional object, comprising at least one process station being configured to perform an additive manufacturing process and/or at least one preprocessing process for an additive manufacturing process and/or at least one postprocessing process for an additive manufacturing process; at least one conveying device configured to convey an item between at least two positions (P 1 , P 2 ) of the plant, the conveying device comprising at least one conveying element, the at least one conveying element being at least partially bound to ground, and at least one conveying carriage being connectable or connected with the conveying element so as to be moveable between at least two positions (P 1 , P 2 ) of the plant, the at least one conveying carriage comprising at least one supporting interface for supporting at least one item.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A plant for additively manufacturing at least one three-dimensional object, the plant comprising:
at least one process station configured to perform at least one additive manufacturing process, and/or at least one preprocessing process for an additive manufacturing process, and/or at least one post processing process for an additive manufacturing process;
at least one conveying device configured to convey at least one item comprising a powder module between at least two positions of the plant, the conveying device comprising:
at least one conveying element at least partially bound to a ground; and,
at least two conveying carriages, wherein at least one conveying carriage is connectable or connected with the conveying element so as to be moveable between the at least two positions of the plant, wherein the at least one conveying carriage comprises at least one supporting interface for supporting the at least one item, and wherein at least two conveying carriages each comprise a connecting interface, wherein a first connecting interface of a first conveying carriage is configured to establish a direct coupling connection with a second connecting interface of a second conveying carriage when the first conveying carriage is adjacent the second conveying carriage.

2. The plant of claim 1 , wherein the conveying device is a separate device to the at least one process station.

3. The plant of claim 1 , wherein the at least one conveying element comprises at least one conveying element portion that extends straight.

4. The plant of claim 1 , wherein the at least one conveying element comprises at least one conveying element portion that extends curved.

5. The plant of claim 1 , wherein the at least one conveying element is configured to generate a conveying force configured to move the at least one conveying carriage along the at least one conveying element.

6. The plant of claim 1 , wherein the at least one conveying carriage comprises a drive unit configured to generate a drive force to move the at least one conveying carriage along the at least one conveying element.

7. The plant of claim 1 further comprising at least one traction carriage being connectable or connected with the at least one conveying element so as to be moveable between the at least two positions of the plant, wherein the traction carriage comprises a drive unit configured to generate a drive force to move the traction carriage along the at least two positions of the plant;
wherein, the at least one traction carriage comprises at least one connection interface configured to establish a connection of the traction carriage with at least one additional traction carriage and/or with the at least one conveying carriage.

8. The plant of claim 1 further comprising a transfer device configured to transfer a supported item between a first position and/or orientation and a second position and/or orientation relative to a base body of the conveying device.

9. The plant of claim 1 wherein the at least one conveying carriage comprises a determination device assigned to the at least one supporting interface, wherein the determination device is configured to determine at least one chemical and/or physical parameter of a substance of the at least one item supported by the at least one supporting interface.

10. The plant of claim 1 , wherein the at least one conveying carriage comprises at least one determination device configured to determine at least one actual and/or future operating parameter.

11. The plant of claim 1 further comprising a control unit configured to control at least one conveying parameter of the at least one conveying carriage.

12. The plant of claim 1 , wherein the at least one conveying carriage comprises a data storage device configured to store at least one information of the at least one conveying carriage and/or of the at least one item conveyed by the at least one conveying carriage.

13. The plant of claim 12 further comprising a communication device configured to transmit information from the data storage device to at least one communication partner and/or receive information to be stored in the data storage device from the at least one communication partner.

14. The plant of claim 1 , wherein the at least one item further comprises a build plate, an additively manufactured three-dimensional object, a determination device, a service and/or repair device, or a cleaning device.

15. A conveying device for a plant for additively manufacturing three-dimensional objects, the conveying device configured to convey at least one item comprising a powder module between at least two positions of the plant, the conveying device comprising:
at least one conveying element at least partially bound to a ground; and,
at least two conveying carriages, wherein at least one conveying carriage is connectable or connected with the conveying element so as to be moveable between the at least two positions of the plant, wherein the at least one conveying carriage comprises at least one supporting interface for supporting the at least one item, and wherein at least two conveying carriages each comprise a connecting interface, wherein a first connecting interface of a first conveying carriage is configured to establish a direct coupling connection with a second connecting interface of a second conveying carriage when the first conveying carriage is adjacent the second conveying carriage.

Assignees

• Concept Laser Gmbh

Inventors

• Kremer Viktor
• Schmidbauer Christoph
• Hetzel Ralf
• Krause Pascal
• Krausser Benjamin

Classifications

• B22F12/82

  Combination of additive manufacturing apparatus or devices with other processing apparatus or devices · CPC title

• G05B19/4099 Primary

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

• B22F10/80

  Data acquisition or data processing · CPC title

• B22F12/90

  Means for process control, e.g. cameras or sensors · CPC title

• B22F12/22

  Driving means · CPC title