Management apparatus, production system, and management method of extracting a combination of two or more structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12459210-B2
Application number	US-202218087859-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2022
Priority date	Dec 28, 2021
Publication date	Nov 4, 2025
Grant date	Nov 4, 2025

Abstract

A management apparatus includes circuitry to manage multiple structures including a fabrication object fabricated by a fabrication apparatus in a fabrication area of the fabrication apparatus and extract a combination of two or more structures from the multiple structures based on shape information of the multiple structures.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A management apparatus comprising circuitry configured to:
extract a combination of two or more structures from multiple structures based on shape information of the multiple structures, wherein the multiple structures include a fabrication object fabricated by a fabrication apparatus, and include at least one first structure and two or more second structures, and wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine which of the two or more second structures is more easily combinable with the at least one first structure from among the two or more second structures after the at least one first structure and the two or more second structures have been sintered.

2 . The management apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to acquire a measurement result of the multiple structures from a measuring apparatus that measures the multiple structures to obtain the shape information.

3 . The management apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
determine whether each of the multiple structures satisfies a predetermined reference based on the measurement result of the multiple structures, and
cause the fabrication apparatus to change a fabrication area of the fabrication apparatus when the circuitry determines that a structure among the multiple structures that does not satisfy the predetermined reference is fabricated in the fabrication area.

4 . The management apparatus according to claim 3 ,
wherein the circuitry further configured to cause a system that creates fabrication data for fabricating the fabrication object to exclude, from the fabrication area, an unsatisfied fabrication area in which the structure that does not satisfy the predetermined reference is fabricated.

5 . The management apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
determine whether each of the multiple structures satisfies a predetermined reference based on the measurement result of the multiple structures, and
determine whether to perform a maintenance operation on a production system including the fabrication apparatus based on a determination result of the multiple structures.

6 . The management apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
determine whether each of the multiple structures satisfies a predetermined reference to determine a satisfied fabrication area in which the multiple structures satisfy the predetermined reference based on the measurement result of the multiple structures, and
determine a specified area in which a structure having minimum difference between a designed dimension and a measured dimension is fabricated in the satisfied fabrication area based on a determination result of the multiple structures.

7 . The management apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
determine whether each of the multiple structures satisfies a predetermined reference based on the measurement result of the multiple structures, and
collect the measurement result of a structure in which the circuitry determines the structure that does not satisfy the predetermined reference among the multiple structures.

8 . The management apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the multiple structures include multiple first structures and multiple second structures, and the circuitry is further configured to:
determine one or more feature points of the multiple first structures and the multiple second structures included in the measurement result of the multiple first structures and the measurement result of the multiple second structures; and
extract a combination of one of the multiple first structures and one of the multiple second structures satisfying a predetermined condition based on information of the one or more feature points.

9 . The management apparatus according to claim 8 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
calculate a first statistical distribution of the one or more feature points of the multiple first structures included in the measurement result of the multiple first structures; and
adjust a parameter of a production system including the fabrication apparatus to fabricate the multiple second structures having a second statistical distribution of the one or more feature points that matches the first statistical distribution.

10 . The management apparatus according to claim 9 ,
wherein the circuitry uses, as the measurement result of the multiple first structures, information of the one or more feature points of the multiple first structures included in at least one of the measurement result of the multiple first structures fabricated by the fabrication apparatus or the measurement result of the multiple first structures sintered by a sintering apparatus to calculate the first statistical distribution.

11 . The management apparatus according to claim 8 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
calculate a first statistical distribution of the one or more feature points of the multiple first structures included in the measurement result of the multiple first structures; and
correct fabrication data of the multiple second structures to fabricate the multiple second structures having a second statistical distribution of the one or more feature points that matches the first statistical distribution calculated.

12 . The management apparatus according to claim 11 ,
wherein the circuitry uses, as the measurement result of the multiple first structures, information of the one or more feature points of the multiple first structures included in at least one of the measurement result of the multiple first structures fabricated by the fabrication apparatus or the measurement result of the multiple first structures sintered by a sintering apparatus to calculate the first statistical distribution.

13 . The management apparatus according to claim 8 ,
wherein the circuitry uses, as the measurement result of the multiple structures, information of the one or more feature points of the multiple structures included in at least one of the measurement result of the multiple structures fabricated by the fabrication apparatus or the measurement result of the multiple structures sintered by a sintering apparatus to extract the combination of the one of the multiple first structures and the one of the multiple second structures.

14 . The management apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
perform a simulation of fabrication of the multiple structures in the fabrication apparatus, and
extract the combination of two or more structures satisfying a predetermined condition from the multiple structures based on a simulation result.

15 . The management apparatus according to claim 14 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
collect a measurement result of the multiple structures fabricated by the fabrication apparatus and the measurement result of the multiple structures sintered by a sintering apparatus, and
perform the simulation based on the measurement result collected of the multiple structures.

16 . The management apparatus according to claim 8 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
store multiple pieces of fastening information to fasten a fastening structure to a fastening target structure; and
determine the fastening structure to be fastened to the fastening target structure based on the multiple pieces of fastening information and the measurement result

Assignees

• Omodaka Katsuhiko
• Shindoh Hidenori
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Omodaka Katsuhiko
• Shindoh Hidenori

Classifications

• B33Y50/02

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B22F12/90

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

• B22F12/88

  Handling of additively manufactured products, e.g. by robots · CPC title

• B33Y40/00

  Auxiliary operations or equipment, e.g. for material handling · CPC title

• B29C64/379

  Handling of additively manufactured objects, e.g. using robots · CPC title