Arcam Ab

Daniel Jonasson

Ulf Ackelid

Anders Snis

Tomas Lock

Morgan Larsson

Provided is a method for forming a three dimensional article comprising the steps of: providing at least one electron beam source emitting an electron beam for at least one of heating or fusing said powder material, where said electron beam source comprises a cathode, an anode, and a grid between said cathode and anode; controlling the electron beam source in at least two modes during said formation of said three dimensional article; applying a predetermined accelerator voltage between said cathode and said anode; applying a predetermined number of different grid voltages between said grid and said cathode for producing a corresponding predetermined number of electron beam currents; and at least one of creating or updating a look-up table or mathematical function during one of the at least two modes, wherein said look-up table or mathematical function defines a relationship between a desired electron beam current and an applied grid voltage.

Additive manufacturing of three-dimensional articles

The present invention relates to a method for forming a three-dimensional article through successively depositing individual layers of powder material that are fused together so as to form the article, said method comprising the steps of: providing at least one electron beam source emitting an electron beam for heating and/or fusing said powder material. Controlling the electron beam source in a first mode when said formation of said three dimensional article is in a first process step. Controlling said electron beam in a second mode when said formation of said three dimensional article is in a second process step, wherein in said first mode an electron beam current from said electron beam source is controlled in a feed-forward mode and in said second mode said electron beam current is controlled in a feed-back mode.

The invention concerns an apparatus () for producing three-dimensional objects () layer by layer using a powdery material which can be solidified by irradiating it with a beam () of charged particles, said apparatus () comprising means for successive application of powder layers to a work table, and a radiation gun () for delivering said beam () of charged particles, wherein the inventive apparatus () comprises a powder-lifting detection device () capable of generating a signal (S) upon detection of lifting of powdery material from the working area ().

Method and apparatus for producing three-dimensional objects

The invention concerns a method for producing three-dimensional objects () layer by layer using a powdery material which can be solidified by irradiating it with a beam () of charged particles, which method comprises the following steps: successive application of powder layers to a working area (), and fusing together successive layers of said three-dimensional object () by successively irradiating the powdery layers with said beam (). The invention is characterized in that it comprises the following steps: determining whether lifting of powdery material from the working area () occurs using a powder-lifting detection device (OO) capable of generating a signal (S) upon detection of lifting of powdery material from the working area (), and interrupting the irradiation of at least a part of the working area () where powder lifting occurs using the signal (S) generated by the powder-lifting detection device (O) for automatically trigging the interruption. The invention also concerns an apparatus () for producing three-dimensional objects () layer by layer using a powdery material which can be solidified by irradiating it with a beam () of charged particles, said apparatus () comprising means for successive application of powder layers to a work table, and a radiation gun () for delivering said beam () of charged particles, wherein the inventive apparatus () comprises a powder-lifting detection device () capable of generating a signal (S) upon detection of lifting of powdery material from the working area ().

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Goeteborg, Sweden

Daniel Jonasson