Sigma Labs, Inc.

Divergent Technologies, Inc.

The United States of America As Represented by the United States

Sigma Additive Solutions, Inc.

University of California

Los Alamos National Security, LLC

Other

The United States of America As Represented by the Department of Energy

The United States of America As Represented by the United States Energy

Bigelow Aerospace

Martin S Piltch

Mark J Cola

R Bruce Madigan

Vivek R Dave

Alberto M Castro

Lars Jacquemetton

Darren Beckett

Scott Betts

David D Clark

Matias Roybal

Richard Rubenstein

R Alan Patterson

Perry Clayton Gray

Gerald W Leeches

John Van Nierop

John J Teti, Jr

Kevin M Anderson

Robert T Bigelow

Glenn Wikle

John P Rink

Roger Frye

McIlwaine Archer, Iii

Robert W Carpenter

Roy A Michelotti

Charles R Tallman

Luis Aguilar

Robert W Carpenter, Ii

An additive manufacturing system includes a work region having a layer of metallic powder distributed across at least a portion of the work region. The system further includes a power source, a scanning and focusing system and a processor. The processor is configured to control the power source to emit a beam of energy at a power level and to manipulate the beam of energy across the work region in a plurality of build tracks to form a part from the fused metallic powder. The processor further determines a cooling rate at a termination of each of the plurality of build tracks and controls the power level of the power source in response to the determined cooling rate.

Determination and control of cooling rate in an additive manufacturing system

This disclosure describes an additive manufacturing system that includes a build plane having a first region and a second region. Multiple energy source can be positioned above the build plane and configured to direct energy into the first and second regions of the build plane. The system includes optical sensors configured to monitor an intensity of light emitted from the energy sources. A processor associated with the additive manufacturing system is configured to adjust the sensor outputs in response to the energy sources coming into close proximity.

Sensor deconfliction in multilaser additive manufacturing systems

This invention teaches a multi-sensor quality inference system for additive manufacturing. This invention still further teaches a quality system that is capable of discerning and addressing three quality issues: i) process anomalies, or extreme unpredictable events uncorrelated to process inputs; ii) process variations, or difference between desired process parameters and actual operating conditions; and iii) material structure and properties, or the quality of the resultant material created by the Additive Manufacturing process. This invention further teaches experimental observations of the Additive Manufacturing process made only in a Lagrangian frame of reference. This invention even further teaches the use of the gathered sensor data to evaluate and control additive manufacturing operations in real time.

Multi-sensor quality inference and control for additive manufacturing processes

An additive manufacturing system comprises a build plane and an energy source configured to direct energy onto a work region of the build plane. An optical detector is configured to receive one or more optical signals from the work region. An optical filter is positioned between the work region and the optical detector, wherein the optical filter includes a first partially transmissive polarized filter having a first polarization axis and a second partially transmissive polarized filter having a second polarization axis. The first polarization axis is rotationally offset from the second polarization axis approximately 90 degrees. The optical filter improves the signal to noise ratio of the optical sensors.

Optical filter having dual polarization

This invention teaches a quality assurance system for additive manufacturing. This invention teaches a multi-sensor, real-time quality system including sensors, affiliated hardware, and data processing algorithms that are Lagrangian-Eulerian with respect to the reference frames of its associated input measurements. The quality system for Additive Manufacturing is capable of measuring true in-process state variables associated with an additive manufacturing process, i.e., those in-process variables that define a feasible process space within which the process is deemed nominal. The in-process state variables can also be correlated to the part structure or microstructure and can then be useful in identifying particular locations within the part likely to include defects.

Defect detection for additive manufacturing systems

An optical manufacturing process sensing and status indication system is taught that is able to utilize optical emissions from a manufacturing process to infer the state of the process. In one case, it is able to use these optical emissions to distinguish thermal phenomena on two timescales and to perform feature extraction and classification so that nominal process conditions may be uniquely distinguished from off-nominal process conditions at a given instant in time or over a sequential series of instants in time occurring over the duration of the manufacturing process. In other case, it is able to utilize these optical emissions to derive corresponding spectra and identify features within those spectra so that nominal process conditions may be uniquely distinguished from off-nominal process conditions at a given instant in time or over a sequential series of instants in time occurring over the duration of the manufacturing process.

Optical manufacturing process sensing and status indication system

This invention teaches a quality assurance system for additive manufacturing. This invention teaches a multi-sensor, real-time quality system including sensors, affiliated hardware, and data processing algorithms that are Lagrangian-Eulerian with respect to the reference frames of its associated input measurements. The quality system for Additive Manufacturing is capable of measuring true in-process state variables associated with an additive manufacturing process, i.e. those in-process variables that define a feasible process space within which the process is deemed nominal. The in-process state variables can also be correlated to the part structure or microstructure and can then be useful in identifying particular locations within the part likely to include defects.

Method and system for monitoring additive manufacturing processes

Photodetector array for additive manufacturing operations

Growing community of inventors

Los Alamos, NM, United States of America

Martin S Piltch