Ut-Battelle, Inc.

Gregory D Dreifus

Lonnie J Love

Ahmed A Hassen

Seokpum Kim

Craig A Blue

Vlastimil Kunc

Brian K Post

John M Lindahl

Phillip C Chesser

Alex C Roschli

Michael C Borish

Vlastimil Kune

Bentley T Beard, Ii

Kenneth Stephenson

John C Bowers

Systems and methods for generating graded lattice structures that can be used as infill for additively manufactured articles. Tailored sectioning and field-based smoothing are modified polygon, e.g., circle, packing algorithms that adjust the size of the circles based on physical field data to adapt the infill generation process to a field expected to be experienced by the article. Molecular dynamically generated lattice infill is based on force balancing a node distribution instead of a circle packing. Field data can be utilized to adjust the spacing of the node distribution according to a force balance equilibrium model that accounts for the field expected to be experienced by the article being additively manufactured. The resultant non-uniform honeycomb structures from tailored sectioning, field-based smoothing, and force-balancing robustly and efficiently address the connection issues with traditional non-uniform lattice structures.

Systems and methods for generating a graded lattice structure and their application to additive manufacturing

A system and method for improving additive manufacturing, including additive manufacturing toolpaths, is provided. The system and method includes a toolpath generator that obtains initial toolpaths of an object, identifies isolated paths in the toolpaths, and adds bridge connections between neighboring isolated paths in each layer to improve the toolpaths. The bridge connections facilitate the continuous and non-stop deposition of each layer according to improved toolpaths during additive manufacture, which can reduce total deposition time and improve the resultant additive manufacture.

System and method for additive manufacturing with toolpath bridges and resultant structure

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East Rockaway, NY, United States of America

Gregory D Dreifus