Plate, kit and method for calibrating an additive manufacturing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12440897-B2
Application number	US-202118009493-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2021
Priority date	Jun 11, 2020
Publication date	Oct 14, 2025
Grant date	Oct 14, 2025

Abstract

A removable calibration plate (10) comprises a sheet (20) comprising an upper face (21) intended to face towards the powerful incident-radiation beam, and bearing a reference marking (30) and being intended to receive a test marking (40), and a lower face (23). The plate (10) comprises an etching layer (22) to be etched by a powerful incident-radiation beam (F), this layer being secured to the upper face (21) of the sheet (20) and opaque to visible light, and being able to be destroyed locally by the powerful incident-radiation beam (F) in order to form the at least one test marking (40), the sheet (20) being transparent to visible light, the lower face (23) of the sheet (20) being frosted.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A removable calibration plate able to be positioned in a firing system for firing at least one power incident-radiation beam, which firing system belongs to an additive manufacturing apparatus,
the removable calibration plate comprising a sheet,
the sheet comprising an upper face intended to face toward the at least one power incident-radiation beam, the sheet bearing at least one reference marking and being intended to receive at least one test marking, and a lower face, which is distant from the upper face in a thickness direction of the sheet,
wherein the removable calibration plate comprises at least one etching layer to be etched by the at least one power incident-radiation beam,
wherein the at least one etching layer to be etched by the at least one power incident-radiation beam is secured to the upper face of the sheet and is opaque to visible light,
wherein the at least one etching layer to be etched by the at least one power incident-radiation beam is able to be destroyed locally by the at least one power incident-radiation beam in order to form the at least one test marking,
wherein the sheet is transparent to visible light, and
wherein the lower face of the sheet is depolished.

2. The removable calibration plate according to claim 1 , wherein the lower face of the sheet is transparent to backlighting visible light.

3. The removable calibration plate according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one reference marking is created by locally destroying the at least one etching layer using the at least one power incident-radiation beam.

4. The removable calibration plate according to claim 1 , wherein, in the at least one etching layer to be etched by the at least one power incident-radiation beam, there is at least one positioning sighting mark of dimensions greater than dimensions of the at least one reference marking and/or than dimensions of the at least one test marking.

5. The removable calibration plate according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet contains glass or is made of glass.

6. The removable calibration plate according to claim 1 , wherein, in the at least one etching layer to be etched by the at least one power incident-radiation beam, there are the at least one reference marking created by locally destroying the at least one etching layer to be etched by the at least one power incident-radiation beam and the at least one test marking created by locally destroying the at least one etching layer to be etched by the at least one power incident-radiation beam.

7. The removable calibration plate according to claim 6 , wherein the at least one test marking present in the etching layer to be etched by the at least one power incident-radiation beam comprises an identification of the test marking.

8. The removable calibration plate according to claim 1 , wherein the removable calibration plate comprises at least one non-volatile memory in which there are recorded a unique identification of the removable calibration plate and absolute coordinates of the at least one reference marking, which absolute coordinates have been determined beforehand and are associated with the unique identification of the removable calibration plate.

9. The removable calibration plate according to claim 8 , wherein the at least one non-volatile memory is in the form of an NFC and/or RFID chip fixed to the removable calibration plate.

10. A portable calibration kit comprising:
a removable calibration plate, able to be positioned in a field of a firing system for firing at least one power incident-radiation beam, which firing system belongs to an additive manufacturing apparatus,
the removable calibration plate comprising a sheet,
the sheet comprising an upper face intended to face toward the at least one power incident-radiation beam, the sheet bearing at least one reference marking and being intended to receive at least one test marking, and a lower face, which is distant from the upper face in a thickness direction of the sheet,
wherein the removable calibration plate comprises at least one etching layer to be etched by the at least one power incident-radiation beam,
wherein the at least one etching layer to be etched by the at least one power incident-radiation beam is secured to the upper face of the sheet and is opaque to visible light,
wherein the at least one etching layer to be etched by the at least one power incident-radiation beam is able to be destroyed locally by the at least one power incident-radiation beam in order to form the at least one test marking,
wherein the sheet is transparent to visible light, and
wherein the lower face of the sheet is depolished; and

at least one non-volatile memory in which there are recorded a unique identification of the removable calibration plate and absolute coordinates of the at least one reference marking, which absolute coordinates have been determined beforehand and are associated with the unique identification of the removable calibration plate.

11. The portable calibration kit according to claim 10 , wherein the portable calibration kit further comprises an image-capture apparatus for capturing at least one image so as to compare the at least one reference marking with the at least one test marking of the removable calibration plate,
the image-capture apparatus being portable and separated from the firing system for firing the at least one power incident-radiation beam, which firing system belongs to the additive manufacturing apparatus,
the image-capture apparatus comprising a casing comprising a surround delimiting an opening to accept the removable calibration plate, retainers for holding the removable calibration plate in the opening, at least one source of backlighting visible light situated beneath the opening, a sensor of at least one backlighting visible light image, a guiding and supporting device for positioning the sensor above the opening relative to the surround, and
the portable calibration kit and/or the image-capture apparatus comprising a calculator configured to analyse the at least one backlighting visible light image acquired by the sensor, recognise the at least one reference marking and the at least one test marking in the at least one backlighting visible light image acquired by the sensor, and calculate aiming-command corrections for the aiming of the firing system for firing the at least one power incident-radiation beam, which firing system belongs to the additive manufacturing apparatus, as a function of at least coordinates of the at least one test marking with respect to the at least one reference marking.

12. The portable calibration kit according to claim 11 , wherein the image-capture apparatus and/or the calculator and/or the sensor and/or the removable calibration plate comprises the non-volatile memory,
the calculator being configured to calculate the aiming-command corrections for the aiming of the firing system for firing the at least one power incident-radiation beam, which firing system belongs to the additive manufacturing apparatus, as a function of the coordinates of the at least one test marking that have been calculated for the at least one reference marking and as a function of the absolute coordinates of the at least one reference marking.

13. The portable calibration kit according to claim 11 , wherein the removable calibration plate comprises the at least one non-volatile memory in which there are recorded the unique identification of the removable calibration plate and the absolute coordinates of the at least one reference marking, which absolute coordinates have been determined beforehand and are associated with the unique identi

Assignees

• Addup

Inventors

• Anneton Antoine
• Vernet Raphael

Classifications

• B22F10/366

  Scanning parameters, e.g. hatch distance or scanning strategy · CPC title

• B22F10/28

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

• B22F12/30

  Platforms or substrates · CPC title

• B22F12/90

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

• B22F10/85

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title