Device and method for the generative production of a three-dimensional object

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11981082-B2
Application number	US-201816605837-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2018
Priority date	Apr 21, 2017
Publication date	May 14, 2024
Grant date	May 14, 2024

Abstract

A control method serves for controlling at least one solidification device of an additive manufacturing device for manufacturing a three-dimensional object by means of an additive layer build method in which at least one object is manufactured by repeated application of a layer of a building material to a build area and by selective solidification of the applied layer at positions corresponding to a cross-section of the object to be manufactured, wherein a gas having a plurality of flow directions which essentially are not aligned in the same direction flows across the build area. The method includes receiving and/or determining a distribution of the flow directions of the gas above the build area, assigning a reference flow direction to an area of the build area in dependence on the distribution of the flow directions above the area, controlling the solidification device to solidify at least a part of the cross-section of the object to be produced in dependence on a reference flow direction above the area of the build area in which the respective part of the cross-section is positioned.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A control method for controlling at least one solidification device of an additive manufacturing device for manufacturing a three-dimensional object by an additive layer build method in which at least one object is manufactured by repeated application of a layer of a building material to a build area and by selective solidification of the applied layer at positions corresponding to a cross-section of the object to be manufactured, wherein a gas having a plurality of flow directions which essentially are not aligned in a same direction flows across the build area, wherein the method comprises for at least one layer to be solidified the following steps:
receiving and/or determining a distribution of the flow directions of the gas above the build area;
assigning a reference flow direction to an area of the build area depending on the distribution of the flow directions above the area;
controlling the solidification device to solidify at least a part of the cross-section of the object to be produced depending on a reference flow direction above the area of the build area in which a respective part of the cross-section is positioned;
dividing at least one section of the build area into a plurality of sub-areas;
for more than one of the sub-areas of the build area, assigning a reference flow direction to each one of the sub-areas; and
controlling the solidification device depending on the respective reference flow direction above the respective sub-area.

2. The control method according to claim 1 , wherein the division into sub-areas is performed depending on a divergence angle of the flow directions.

3. The control method according to claim 1 , wherein the reference flow direction is an average flow direction of a number of the flow directions; and
the division into sub-areas is performed in such a way that a deviation of the flow direction above the sub-area from the reference flow direction above the sub-area does not exceed a predetermined angle.

4. The control method according to claim 3 , wherein the division into the sub-areas within a layer is performed locally selectively.

5. The control method according to claim 3 , wherein the predetermined angle is at least 0°, and/or at most 60°.

6. The control method according to claim 1 , wherein the division into sub-areas is performed layer-specifically depending on a geometry of a respective cross-section to be solidified of the object to be manufactured and/or on a ratio of area contents of an area to be solidified and of an area of the build area which is not to be solidified and/or on a degree of fragmentation of the area to be solidified within a respective layer.

7. The control method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of assigning the reference flow direction is performed depending on a distribution of the flow directions in a flow segment above the area or the sub-area.

8. The control method according to claim 1 , wherein the reference flow direction exclusively represents flow directions from the received or determined distribution which lie in a defined angular spectrum and/or exclusively represents flow directions which correlate with a respective partial gas flow, the volume flow value of which lies above a predefined threshold value.

9. The control method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of controlling comprises defining a solidification direction for the area and/or sub-areas of the build area in which the cross-section of the object to be manufactured is positioned.

10. A manufacturing method for the additive manufacturing of a three-dimensional object by layerwise application and selective solidification of a building material, comprising the steps:
applying a layer of the building material to a build area;
selectively solidifying the applied layer of the building material at locations corresponding to a cross-section of the object to be manufactured by means of a solidifying device;
repeating the steps of applying and solidifying until the three-dimensional object is finished;
flowing across the build area a gas having a plurality of flow directions which essentially are not aligned in a same direction; and
a control method according to claim 1 is used to perform the manufacturing method.

11. A storage medium on which a computer program is stored, the computer program being loadable into a programmable control unit and comprising program code means for executing all the steps of a control method according to claim 1 when the computer program is executed on the control unit.

12. A control device for a manufacturing device for the additive manufacturing of a three-dimensional object by layerwise application and selective solidification of a building material in a build area within a process chamber, wherein the manufacturing device comprises:
a solidification device generating at least one beam of solidification energy that is directed onto the build area for selectively solidifying a layer of the building material applied to the build area at locations corresponding to a cross-section of the object to be manufactured; and
a flow device comprising one or more inlets for supplying a gas to the process chamber and one or more outlets for discharging the gas from the process chamber, to thus generate a gas flow having a plurality of flow directions which essentially are not aligned in a same direction across the build area,
wherein the control device is adapted to control the manufacturing device in such a way that the manufacturing device performs a control method according to claim 1 .

13. A manufacturing device for the additive manufacturing of a three-dimensional object by layerwise application and selective solidification of a building material within a process chamber, comprising:
a solidification device generating at least one beam of solidification energy that is directed onto a build area for selectively solidifying a layer of the building material applied to the build area at locations corresponding to a cross-section of the object to be fabricated; and
a flow device comprising one or more inlets for supplying a gas to the process chamber and one or more outlets for discharging the gas from the process chamber to thus generate a gas flow having a plurality of flow directions which essentially are not aligned in a same direction across the build area,
wherein the manufacturing device is adapted and/or controlled to repeat the steps of applying and selectively solidifying until the object is completed; and
wherein the manufacturing device comprises a control device according to claim 12 .

14. The control method according to claim 1 , wherein the building material is a powder.

15. The control method according to claim 1 , wherein the sub-areas are selected adjacent to one another and/or overlapping one another and/or the division into sub-areas is performed depending on a geometry of the object to be manufactured in the respective layer and/or the division into sub-areas is performed depending on a distribution of the flow directions above the build area.

16. The control method according to claim 2 , wherein the division into sub-areas is performed such that an area of the sub-area increases as the divergence angle decreases.

17. The control method according to claim 3 , wherein the division into sub-areas within a layer is performed by limiting a deviation of the flow directions above the sub-areas from the respective reference flow direction above the sub-areas by different predetermined angles.

18. The control method according to clai

Assignees

• Eos Gmbh Electro Optical Systems

Inventors

• Schade Martin
• Domröse Robert Achim
• Leuterer Martin
• Göth Michael
• Mittermüller Maximilian
• Kuchenbaur Markus

Classifications

• B29C64/371 Primary

  using an environment other than air, e.g. inert gas · CPC title

• B22F10/28

  Powder bed fusion, e.g. selective laser melting [SLM] or electron beam melting [EBM] · CPC title

• B22F10/322

  of the gas flow, e.g. rate or direction · CPC title

• B29C64/153

  using layers of powder being selectively joined, e.g. by selective laser sintering or melting · CPC title

• B29C64/393

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title