Sandia Corporation

Michelle L Griffith

Lane D Harwell

Donald L Greene

William Hudson Hofmeister

David Michael Keicher

David T Schmale

M Eric Schlienger

Joseph A Romero

Lee P Schanwald

Gerald A Knorovsky

Danny O MacCallum

Francisco P Jeantette

John E Smugeresky

Clinton L Atwood

Gary A Pressly

An energy beam driven rapid fabrication system, in which an energy beam strikes a growth surface to form a molten puddle thereon. Feed powder is then injected into the molten puddle from a converging flow of feed powder. A portion of the feed powder becomes incorporated into the molten puddle, forcing some of the puddle contents to freeze on the growth surface, thereby adding an additional layer of material. By scanning the energy beam and the converging flow of feed powder across the growth surface, complex three-dimensional shapes can be formed, ready or nearly ready for use. Nearly any class of material can be fabricated using this system.

Energy-beam-driven rapid fabrication system

A closed-loop, feedback-controlled direct laser fabrication system is disclosed. The feedback refers to the actual growth conditions obtained by real-time analysis of thermal radiation images. The resulting system can fabricate components with severalfold improvement in dimensional tolerances and surface finish.

Direct laser additive fabrication system with image feedback control

A process for additive manufacture by energetic wire deposition is described. A source wire is fed into a energy beam generated melt-pool on a growth surface as the melt-pool moves over the growth surface. This process enables the rapid prototyping and manufacture of fully dense, near-net shape components, as well as cladding and welding processes. Alloys, graded materials, and other inhomogeneous materials can be grown using this process.

Energetic additive manufacturing process with feed wire

Growing community of inventors

Albuquerque, NM, United States of America

Michelle L Griffith