Monitoring material soldification byproducts during additive manufacturing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016332381-A1
Application number	US-201515111406-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 22, 2015
Priority date	Jan 24, 2014
Publication date	Nov 17, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system is provided for additively manufacturing a part. This additive manufacturing system includes a base, a solidification device and a detection device. The base is adapted to support material; e.g., powder material. The solidification device is adapted to solidify at least a portion of the supported material to form at least a portion of the part. The detection device is adapted to detect emissions produced by the solidification of at least a portion of the material.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for additively manufacturing a part, the system comprising:
a base adapted to support material; a solidification device adapted to solidify at least a portion of the supported material to form at least a portion of the part; and a detection device adapted to detect emissions produced by the solidification of at least a portion of the material.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein
the solidification device is adapted to solidify the respective material with an energy beam that moves over the respective material; and the detection device is adapted to detect emissions following the energy beam.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein
the solidification device is adapted to solidify the respective material with an energy beam; and the detection device is adapted to detection emissions at a location where the energy beam fuses the respective material.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the detection device comprises a spectrometer.

5 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a processing system adapted to
receive data from the detection device indicative of the detected emissions; and process the data to determine a species of at least one chemical component in the emissions.

6 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a processing system adapted to
receive data from the detection device indicative of the detected emissions; and process the data to determine a concentration of at least one chemical component in the emissions.

7 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a processing system adapted to
receive data from the detection device indicative of the detected emissions; and process the data to predict whether the solidification of the respective material will produce a defect within the part.

8 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a processing system adapted to
receive data from the detection device indicative of the detected emissions; and control operation of the solidification device based on the data.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the processing system is adapted to control one or more of the following parameters of an energy beam generated by the solidification device based on the data: power, pulse width, spot size, speed the energy beam moves, and hatch spacing.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the solidification device is adapted to generate an energy beam to solidify the respective material, and the energy beam comprises one of a laser beam and an electron beam.

11 . A system for manufacturing a part, the system comprising:
a solidification device adapted to solidify material with an energy beam to form at least a portion of the part; and a detection device adapted to detect one or more byproducts from the solidification of at least a portion of the material.

12 . The system of claim 11 , further comprising a processing system adapted to
receive data from the detection device indicative of the detected one or more byproducts; and process the data to predict whether the solidification of the material will produce a defect within the part.

13 . The system of claim 11 , further comprising a processing system adapted to
receive data from the detection device indicative of the detected one or more byproducts; and control operation of the solidification device based on the data.

14 . A process for additively manufacturing a part, the process comprising:
solidifying material with an energy beam to form at least a portion of the part; and detecting emissions produced by the solidification of at least a portion of the material using a detection device.

15 . The process of claim 14 , further comprising moving the energy beam over the material, wherein the emissions is detected following the energy beam.

16 . The process of claim 14 , wherein the emissions are detected at a location where the energy beam fuses the respective material.

17 . The process of claim 14 , further comprising determining a species of at least one chemical component in the detected emissions.

18 . The process of claim 14 , further comprising determining a concentration of at least one chemical component in the detected emissions.

19 . The process of claim 14 , further comprising predicting whether the solidification of the respective material will produce a defect within the part based on the detected emissions.

20 . The process of claim 14 , further comprising controlling operation of a device generating the energy beam based on the detected emissions.

Assignees

• United Technologies Corp

Inventors

• Long Yu
• Zhang Yan
• Mironets Sergey
• El-Wardany Tahany Ibrahim
• Klucha Agnes

Classifications

• B28B1/001 Primary

  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

• B29C64/393

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B22F12/90

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

• B22F10/28

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

• B22F12/52

  Hoppers · CPC title