General Electric Company

Joseph Edward Hampshire

Jinjie Shi

Richard Roy Worthing, Jr

Xi Yang

Xiaolei Shi

Glen Charles Fedyk

Pinghai Yang

Douglas Frank Hofmann

Gregory Terrence Garay

Christopher David Barnhill

Brian David Przeslawski

Trent William Muhlenkamp

Jr Richard Roy Worthing

Richard Roy Worthing

An additive manufacturing apparatus includes a support configured to support a resin and a constituent material. A support plate includes a window. A stage is configured to hold one or more composite layers of the resin and the constituent material to form a composite component positioned opposite the support plate. A radiant energy device is positioned on an opposite side of the support from the stage and is operable to generate and project radiant energy in a patterned image through the window. An actuator assembly is configured to move the stage in a Z-axis direction and a Y-axis direction.

Systems and methods for additive manufacturing

A method is provided for casting a component. Accordingly, data indicative of at least one location of a unitary core-shell mold which is susceptible to a stress concentration is received. An additive manufacturing process is employed to form the unitary core-shell mold defining a casting cavity. The unitary core-shell mold includes a shell wall defining an outer component shape and a core wall positioned inward of the shell wall. The core wall defines an inner component shape. The core wall and/or the shell wall defines at least one reinforcement recess adjacent to the at least one location which is susceptible to the stress concentration. Following the forming of the unitary core-shell mold, at least one support member is positioned within the reinforcement recess in contact with the at least one location. With the support member in place, the component is cast within the casting cavity.

Methods for casting a component via a unitary core-shell mold

A method for additively printing extension segments on workpieces using an additive manufacturing machine includes controlling, with a computing system, an operation of a print head of the machine such that a region of interest of a build plate of the machine is scanned with an electromagnetic radiation beam. Additionally, the method includes receiving, with the computing system, data associated with reflections of the beam off of the build plate as the region interest is scanned. Furthermore, the method includes receiving, with the computing system, data associated with a location of the beam relative to the build plate. Moreover, the method includes determining, with the computing system, a location of a workpiece interface based on the received data. In addition, the method includes controlling, with the computing system, the operation of the print head such that an extension segment is additively printed on the determined workpiece interface.

System and method for additively printing extension segments on workpieces

A build plate-clamping assembly may include a work station having a build plate-receiving surface and a lock-pin extending from the build plate-receiving surface of the work station. The lock-pin may include a hollow pin body, a piston disposed within the hollow pin body, with the piston axially movable from a retracted position to an actuated position, and a plurality of detents, with the plurality of detents radially extensible through respective ones of a plurality of detent-apertures in the hollow pin body responsive to the piston having been axially moved to the actuated position. A methods of working on workpieces may include lockingly engaging a build plate at a first work station, performing a first work-step, releasing the build plate from the first work station, lockingly engaging the build plate at a second work station, and performing a second work-step. An additive manufacturing system may include a vision system with a first build plate-receiving surface and an additive manufacturing machine with a second build plate-receiving surface.

Build plate clamping-assembly and additive manufacturing systems and methods of additively printing on workpieces

A tooling assembly and method of aligning a plurality of components for a repair process in an additive manufacturing machine includes positioning the plurality of components such that a repair surface of each of the plurality of components contacts an alignment plate, e.g., under the force of gravity or using biasing members. The method further includes surrounding the alignment plate with containment walls to define a reservoir around the plurality of components and dispensing a fill material, such as wax or a potting material, into the reservoir which is configured for fixing a relative position of the plurality of components when the fill material is solidified.

Tooling assembly and method for aligning components for a powder bed additive manufacturing repair process

Additive manufacturing systems, methods, and computer readable media may be configured to perform a calibration. Calibrating an additive manufacturing system may include comparing a digital representation of one or more calibration marks to a calibration-CAD model that includes one or more model calibration marks, and applying a calibration adjustment to one or more CAD models based at least in part on the comparison. The digital representation of the one or more calibration marks may have been obtained using a vision system, and the one or more calibration marks may have been printed on a calibration surface according to the calibration-CAD model using an additive manufacturing machine. The calibration adjustment may be configured to align the one or more CAD models with one or more coordinates of the additive manufacturing system.

Additive manufacturing systems and methods of calibrating for additively printing on workpieces

A tooling assembly for mounting a plurality of components, such as compressor blades, in a powder bed additive manufacturing machine to facilitate a repair process is provided. The tooling assembly includes component fixtures configured for receiving each of the compressor blades, a mounting plate for receiving the component fixtures, and a magnet assembly operably coupling the component fixtures to the mounting plate in a desired position and orientation to facilitate an improved printing process.

Tooling assembly for magnetically aligning components in an additive manufacturing machine

An additive manufacturing system may include a controller operably coupled to a vision system and an additive manufacturing machine. The controller may be configured to determine a workpiece-interface of each of a plurality of workpieces from one or more digital representations of one or more fields of view having been captured by a vision system and determining one or more coordinates of the workpiece-interface of respective ones of the plurality of workpieces, and to transmit one or more print commands to an additive manufacturing machine so as to additively print a plurality of extension segments on the workpiece-interface of respective ones of the plurality of workpieces, with the one or more print commands having been generated based at least in part on the one or more digital representations of the one or more fields of view.

Additive manufacturing systems and methods of additively printing on workpieces

Provided are workpiece-assemblies, and systems and methods for aligning a plurality of workpieces with a build plane. A system may include an alignment plate, one or more elevating blocks, and a workpiece-assembly. A workpiece-assembly may include a build plate that has a plurality of workpiece docks, a plurality of workpiece shoes that have a slot configured to receive a portion of one or more workpieces respectively inserted or insertable into the plurality of workpiece docks, a plurality of biasing members respectively situated or situatable between the build plate and the plurality of workpiece shoes so as to exert a biasing force upon the workpiece shoes, and one or more clamping mechanisms coupled or couplable to the build plate and operable to secure the plurality of workpiece shoes within the respective workpiece docks.

Workpiece-assembly and additive manufacturing systems and methods of additively printing on workpieces

An additive manufacturing system may include a controller operably coupled to a vision system and an additive manufacturing machine. The controller may be configured to determine in a library-CAD model, a nominal model-interface traversing a nominal model corresponding to a workpiece, to compare the nominal model-interface of the library-CAD model to a digital representation of a workpiece-interface of the workpiece, where the digital representation has been obtained using the vision system, and to generate a model of an extension segment based at least in part on the nominal model-interface, with the model of the extension segment being configured to be additively printed on the workpiece-interface of the workpiece.

Growing community of inventors

West Chester, OH, United States of America

Joseph Edward Hampshire