Stiffening component and method for manufacturing a stiffening component

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016207111-A1
Application number	US-201614995615-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 14, 2016
Priority date	Jan 15, 2015
Publication date	Jul 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A component includes elementary units arranged in a regular pattern to form a mesoscopic geometrical structure, wherein each of the plurality of elementary units has the shape of a hollow polyhedron. A method for manufacturing such a component includes manufacturing elementary units in a regular pattern to form a mesoscopic geometrical structure using an AM or 3D printing technique.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A component, comprising:
a plurality of elementary units arranged in a regular pattern to form a mesoscopic geometrical structure, wherein each of the plurality of elementary units has a shape of a hollow polyhedron.

2 . The component according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of elementary units has an outer shape of a regular, convex polyhedron.

3 . The component according to claim 2 , wherein each of the plurality of elementary units has the outer shape of one of a truncated octahedron, a non-truncated octahedron, a tetrahedron, a double tetrahedron, a polygonal prism, a dodecahedron, an icosaheadron, an icosidodecahedron, a deltahedro and a cube.

4 . The component according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of elementary units comprises at least one hole in the outer wall of the polyhedron shape.

5 . The component according to claim 1 , wherein the elementary units are assembled in a regular pattern obtained only by translatory repositioning of the elementary units.

6 . The component according to claim 1 , wherein a first subset of the plurality of elementary units have a first polyhedron size and a second subset of the plurality of elementary units have a second polyhedron size different from the first polyhedron size.

7 . The component according to claim 1 , wherein the hollow polyhedra have an outer wall of predetermined constant thickness enclosing a hollow within the polyhedral shape of the elementary units.

8 . The component according to claim 1 , wherein each surface of each one of the plurality of elementary units facing inwards towards the inner region of the mesoscopic geometric structure borders an inward facing surface of a neighbouring one of the plurality of elementary units.

9 . The component according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of elementary units is integrally manufactured using an AM or 3D printing technique.

10 . A method for manufacturing a component, the method comprising:
manufacturing a plurality of elementary units in a regular pattern to form a mesoscopic geometrical structure using an AM or 3D printing technique.

11 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the 3D printing technique comprises fused deposition modelling, FDM.

12 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the 3D printing technique comprises powder bed printing, PBP.

13 . The method according to claim 12 , further comprising:
drilling a hole in an outer wall each of the plurality of elementary units; and removing unsolidified powder from hollow space within each of the plurality of elementary units through the hole in the outer wall.

14 . The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
embedding the mesoscopic geometrical structure within two or more sheet components to form a stiffened component; or integrally printing the mesoscopic geometrical structure with two or more sheet components to form a stiffened component.

15 . A computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed on a data processing apparatus, cause the data processing apparatus to perform a method for manufacturing a component, the method comprising manufacturing a plurality of elementary units in a regular pattern to form a mesoscopic geometrical structure using an AM or 3D printing technique.

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Gmbh

Inventors

• Robrecht Volker
• Ruppert Bernd
• Schneemann Julian

Classifications

• B29C64/188

  involving additional operations performed on the added layers, e.g. smoothing, grinding or thickness control (surface shaping B29C59/00; after-treatment of articles without altering their shape B29C71/00) · CPC title

• B22F10/28

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

• B22F10/25

  Direct deposition of metal particles, e.g. direct metal deposition [DMD] or laser engineered net shaping [LENS] · CPC title

• B22F3/11 Primary

  Making porous workpieces or articles · CPC title

• B28B1/001

  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