Neutralization of Reactive Metal Condensate in Additive Manufacturing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017361377-A1
Application number	US-201515532273-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 2, 2015
Priority date	Dec 5, 2014
Publication date	Dec 21, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

An additive manufacturing system with a build chamber has a halide vessel that generates a halide gas and a dissociation chamber with a filament. Metal condensate is contacted with the halide gas to form a gaseous metal halide compound. The gaseous metal halide compound is decomposed to deposit metal on the filament. In an example, titanium reacts with gaseous iodine to form gaseous titanium tetraiodide.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An additive manufacturing system comprising:
a build chamber; a laser source configured to direct a laser beam into the build chamber thereby forming metal condensate in the build chamber; a halide vessel connected to the build chamber, wherein the halide vessel includes a halide gas source; and a dissociation chamber connected to the halide vessel, wherein the dissociation chamber includes a filament.

2 . The additive manufacturing system of claim 1 , wherein the halide gas source is configured to generate a gaseous halide from a solid halide material.

3 . The additive manufacturing system of claim 2 , wherein the gaseous halide is I 2 .

4 . The additive manufacturing system of claim 1 , wherein the filament is fabricated of tungsten.

5 . The additive manufacturing system of claim 1 , wherein the halide vessel is downstream of the build chamber and the dissociation chamber is downstream of the halide vessel.

6 . The additive manufacturing system of claim 5 , further comprising a filter downstream of the build chamber in parallel with the halide vessel and the dissociation chamber.

7 . The additive manufacturing system of claim 1 , wherein the halide vessel includes a heating system.

8 . A method comprising:
directing a laser beam into a build chamber of an additive manufacturing system thereby forming metal condensate; contacting the metal condensate with a gaseous halide to form a gaseous metal halide compound; transporting the gaseous metal halide compound to a filament; decomposing the gaseous metal halide compound in the presence of the filament; and depositing a metal of the gaseous metal halide on the filament.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the metal condensate comprises titanium.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the gaseous halide comprises I 2 .

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the gaseous metal compound comprises TiI 4 .

12 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising heating a solid halide material to generate the gaseous halide.

13 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising transporting the gaseous halide from the filament to a filter or the build chamber.

14 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising transporting the gaseous halide to a halide vessel and solidifying the gaseous halide into a solid halide material.

15 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising replacing the filament.

16 . A method of removing particles from the surface of a component comprising:
directing a laser beam into a build chamber of an additive manufacturing system to form a component; and contacting the component with a gaseous halide thereby removing particles from a surface of the component.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the particles comprise powder particles.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the powder particles are partially-fused to the surface.

19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the contacting occurs at least one of during the directing or after the directing.

20 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the contacting occurs in at least one of the build chamber or a cleaning chamber separate from the build chamber.

21 . An additive manufacturing system comprising:
a build chamber; a laser source configured to direct a laser beam into the build chamber thereby forming metal condensate in the build chamber; a halide vessel connected to the build chamber, wherein the halide vessel includes a halide gas source; a dissociation chamber connected to the halide vessel, wherein the dissociation chamber includes a filament; and a cleaning chamber connected to the dissociation chamber and halide vessel.

22 . An additive manufacturing system comprising:
a build chamber; a laser source configured to direct a laser beam into the build chamber thereby forming metal condensate in the build chamber; and a cleaning booth comprising:
a cleaning chamber;
a halide vessel connected to the cleaning chamber, wherein the halide vessel includes a halide gas source; and
a dissociation chamber connected to the halide vessel, wherein the dissociation chamber includes a filament.

Assignees

• Moog Inc

Inventors

• Guerrier Paul
• Brooks Ian L

Classifications

• B22F10/28

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

• B22F12/10

  Auxiliary heating means · CPC title

• B22F12/70

  Gas flow means · CPC title

• C01G23/02 Primary

  Halides of titanium · CPC title

• B22F10/77

  of gas · CPC title