Systems and methods for managing additive manufacturing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12459207-B2
Application number	US-202217570306-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 6, 2022
Priority date	Jan 6, 2022
Publication date	Nov 4, 2025
Grant date	Nov 4, 2025

Abstract

A system for managing additive manufacturing (AM) may comprise a datastore configured to store entries pertaining to a design for a three-dimensional (3D) object. The entries may be configured to include a respective set of parameters for an AM process. The parameters may be configured to cause an AM system to produce 3D objects having anisotropic mechanical properties that satisfy specified anisotropic mechanical requirements. The system may further comprise a design manager configured to determine a set of parameters that optimally satisfy the specified requirements, e.g., satisfy the requirements at a minimal cost.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A system, comprising:
a processor coupled to a memory; an additive manufacturing (AM) system operably coupled to the processor, the AM system configured to produce three-dimensional (3D) objects; a datastore configured to store entries pertaining to a design for a 3D object, each entry configured to include a respective set of parameters for an AM process, the set of parameters configured to cause the AM system to produce the 3D objects to have designated mechanical properties; and a design manager configured for operation on the processor, the design manager configured to:
determine a set of parameters that satisfy specified mechanical requirements for the 3D object, the specified mechanical requirements comprising anisotropic mechanical thresholds including primary mechanical thresholds pertaining to a primary axis and secondary mechanical thresholds pertaining to a secondary axis different from the primary axis, the primary axis including a direction along which a primary load is to be applied to the 3D object, the determined set of parameters based, at least in part, on parameters of one or more entries of the datastore;
wherein the anisotropic mechanical thresholds pertaining to the primary axis and the anisotropic mechanical thresholds pertaining to the secondary axis are different thresholds; and
cause the AM system to produce the 3D object according to the determined set of parameters.

2 . The system of claim 1 wherein the secondary axis is perpendicular to the primary axis.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the datastore comprises a plurality of entries pertaining to the design, the entries configured to associate respective AM configurations with mechanical properties determined for prototypes produced in accordance with the respective AM configurations.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein mechanical properties determined for a prototype comprise primary mechanical properties determined with respect to a primary axis of the prototype and secondary mechanical properties determined with respect to a secondary axis different from the primary axis.

5 . The system of claim 4 , further comprising an analysis module configured to compare the mechanical properties determined for respective prototypes to corresponding anisotropic mechanical thresholds of the mechanical requirements specified for the design.

6 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the design manager is further configured to identify an AM configuration that satisfies the specified mechanical requirements in response to comparing mechanical properties associated with respective entries of the plurality of entries with the specified mechanical requirements.

7 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the design manager is further configured to:
identify entries comprising mechanical properties that satisfy the specified mechanical requirements; and select an entry from the identified entries based, at least in part, on cost metrics determined for the identified entries.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the design manager is configured to determine a cost metric for an entry based, at least in part, on one or more of a material consumption, a manufacture time, a failure rate, and a prototype weight determined for the AM configuration of the entry.

9 . The system of claim 3 , further comprising an analysis module configured to determine a modified AM configuration for the design, wherein parameters of the modified AM configuration differ from parameters of the AM configurations stored in the datastore.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the analysis module is further configured to store an entry within the datastore, the entry configured to associate the modified AM configuration with determined mechanical properties of a prototype produced in an AM process controlled by the parameters of the modified AM configuration.

11 . The system of claim 9 , further comprising a user interaction module configured to produce a user interface configured to display parameters of a recommended AM configuration determined for the design;
wherein the modified parameters determined are based, at least in part, on user-specified parameter values input through the user interface.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the analysis module is configured to determine the parameters of the recommended AM configuration based, at least in part, on the specified mechanical requirements and one or more of the plurality of entries, wherein the parameters of the recommended AM configuration differ from the parameters of the entries within the datastore.

13 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising an interface module configured to cause the AM system to produce a 3D object in an AM process controlled by the determined set of parameters.

14 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the determined set of parameters is configured to specify one or more of a material type, an infill density, an infill geometry, a layer thickness, a percentage of reinforcement filaments, a distribution of reinforcement filaments, a laying direction, and a temperature of an AM process.

15 . A method, comprising:
determining parameters for an additive manufacturing (AM) process to produce a three-dimensional (3D) object design that satisfies anisotropic mechanical requirements specified for the design, the anisotropic mechanical requirements comprising primary mechanical thresholds corresponding to a primary axis and secondary mechanical thresholds corresponding to a secondary axis different from the primary axis, the primary axis including a direction along which a primary load is to be applied to the 3D object; wherein the primary mechanical thresholds corresponding to the primary axis and the secondary mechanical thresholds corresponding to the secondary axis are different thresholds; wherein the determining comprises implementation of an iterative procedure, wherein an iteration of the iterative procedure comprises: determining a set of AM parameters for the iteration, the parameters configured to control an AM process to produce a prototype of the 3D object design, determining mechanical properties of the prototype, comprising primary mechanical properties corresponding to the primary axis and secondary mechanical properties corresponding to the secondary axis, and evaluating the determined set of AM parameters, the evaluating comprising comparing the determined primary mechanical properties of the prototype to the primary mechanical thresholds and comparing the determined secondary mechanical properties of the prototype to the secondary mechanical thresholds; selecting a set of AM parameters from a plurality of different sets of AM parameters, each different set of AM parameters corresponding to a respective iteration of the iterative procedure; and causing an AM system to produce the 3D object according to the selected set of AM parameters.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the iteration further comprises recording an entry within a datastore, the entry configured to associate the set of AM parameters determined for the iteration with a mechanical profile comprising the determined mechanical properties.

17 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising determining a modified set of AM parameters for a next iteration of the iterative procedure, comprising modifying one or more parameter values of the set of parameters determined for the iteration based, at least in part, on the evaluating.

18 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising increasing the one or more parameter values in response

Assignees

• Battelle Energy Alliance Llc

Inventors

• Agarwal Vivek
• Kovacevic Sasa
• Buttles John

Classifications

• G06F30/12

  characterised by design entry means specially adapted for CAD, e.g. graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for CAD · CPC title

• G06F2111/20

  Configuration CAD, e.g. designing by assembling or positioning modules selected from libraries of predesigned modules · CPC title

• G06Q30/0283 Primary

  Price estimation or determination · CPC title

• G06F2113/10

  Additive manufacturing, e.g. three-dimensional [3D] printing · CPC title

• B33Y50/02

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title