Monitoring material soldification byproducts during additive manufacturing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11235392-B2
Application number	US-201515111406-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 22, 2015
Priority date	Jan 24, 2014
Publication date	Feb 1, 2022
Grant date	Feb 1, 2022

Abstract

A system is provided for additively manufacturing a part. This additive manufacturing system includes a base, a solidification device and a detection device. The base is adapted to support material; e.g., powder material. The solidification device is adapted to solidify at least a portion of the supported material to form at least a portion of the part. The detection device is adapted to detect emissions produced by the solidification of at least a portion of the material.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A process for additively manufacturing a part, the process comprising:
solidifying material with an energy beam to form at least a portion of the part;
detecting emissions produced by the solidification of at least a portion of the material using a detection device; and
moving the energy beam over the material, wherein the detection device detects the emissions within a region that follows behind a point where the energy beam is focused on the material;
wherein the detection device does not detect emissions on the point where the energy beam is focused on the material.

2. A process for additively manufacturing a part, the process comprising:
solidifying material with an energy beam to form at least a portion of the part;
detecting emissions produced by the solidification of at least a portion of the material using a detection device; and
moving the energy beam over the material, wherein the detection device detects the emissions within a region that follows behind a point where the energy beam is focused on the material;
wherein the detecting of the emissions produced by the solidification comprises acquiring mass spectra along a path that is focused on the region that follows behind the point where the energy beam is focused on the material.

3. A process for additively manufacturing a part, the process comprising:
solidifying material with an energy beam to form at least a portion of the part;
detecting emissions produced by the solidification of at least a portion of the material using a detection device; and
moving the energy beam over the material, wherein the detecting of the emissions produced by the solidification comprises acquiring mass spectra along a path that is focused on a region that moves with a point where the energy beam is focused on the material.

4. The process of claim 3 , wherein the region follows behind the point where the energy beam is focused on the material.

5. The process of claim 3 , wherein the region is on the point where the energy beam is focused on the material.

6. The process of claim 3 , further comprising determining a species of at least one chemical component in the detected emissions.

7. The process of claim 3 , further comprising determining a concentration of at least one chemical component in the detected emissions.

8. The process of claim 3 , further comprising predicting whether the solidification of the material will produce a defect within the part based on the detected emissions.

9. The process of claim 3 , further comprising controlling operation of a device generating the energy beam based on the detected emissions.

10. The process of claim 9 , wherein the controlling of the operation of the device comprises controlling power of the energy beam.

11. The process of claim 9 , wherein the controlling of the operation of the device comprises controlling pulse width of the energy beam.

12. The process of claim 9 , wherein the controlling of the operation of the device comprises controlling spot size of the energy beam.

13. The process of claim 9 , wherein the controlling of the operation of the device comprises controlling speed the energy beam moves.

14. The process of claim 9 , wherein the controlling of the operation of the device comprises controlling hatch spacing of the energy beam.

15. The process of claim 3 , wherein the energy beam comprises a laser beam.

16. The process of claim 3 , wherein the energy beam comprises an electron beam.

17. The process of claim 3 , wherein the emissions are detected using a spectrometer.

18. The process of claim 3 , wherein the path is acutely angled relative to the energy beam.

19. The process of claim 3 , wherein the path that is parallel to the energy beam.

Assignees

• United Technologies Corp
• Raytheon Tech Corp

Inventors

• Long Yu
• Zhang Yan
• Mironets Sergey
• El-Wardany Tahany Ibrahim
• Klucha Agnes

Classifications

• B28B1/001 Primary

  Rapid manufacturing of 3D objects by additive depositing, agglomerating or laminating of material (selective deposition modelling of metallic powder B22F10/00; rapid manufacturing of 3D objects in general and in particular of plastics B29C64/00) · CPC title

• B22F12/90

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

• B22F12/52

  Hoppers · CPC title

• B22F10/85

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B22F10/40

  Structures for supporting workpieces or articles during manufacture and removed afterwards · CPC title