Rolls-Royce Corporation

Trumpf Laser- Und Systemtechnik Gmbh

Carpenter Technology Corporation

Philip Anthony Carroll

Daniel Clark

Jeffrey Allen

Markus Pieger

Francis William Herbert

Philip Gordon Minion

Sebastian Kaufmann

Adrian Wright

John Robert Rushton

Anthony Grassby

Nicholas Paul Weeks

Barry Lowe

Ben Ian Ferrar

Christopher Wooder

Kevin O'Sullivan

Philip Minion

Closed-loop metal powder management methods for additive manufacturing. Virgin metal powder is provided in a closed powder container comprising at least one sensor, tracker, or optical device. The metal powder is transferred to an additive manufacturing system, a portion of a metal powder layer is consolidated, and excess metal powder is transferred from the additive manufacturing system to the powder container, a second powder container, or an internal powder container. Virgin metal powder or a second metal powder are added to the excess metal powder, a quality of the mixed powder is validated, the process is repeated at least once, and powder physical transfer data associated with at least one of the steps is collected and stored in a data repository. Powder material parameters may be measured and assessed, and may be also be stored in the data repository.

Metal powder management system for additive manufacturing

A sealing element for positioning radially outwardly of aerofoil blades of a gas turbine engine is provided. A radially inner surface region of the sealing element includes a seal structure having one or more inwardly projecting walls formed by additive layer, powder fed, laser weld deposition. The walls form a plurality of curved profile shapes which are arranged in a repeating pattern across the radially inner surface region. None of the walls intersects with any other wall. The curved profile shapes have no radii of curvature less than 0.5 mm.

Sealing element

This invention relates to a method for determining misalignment of a powder feed nozzle and a laser beam. The method includes forming a test structure on a workpiece in at least two different directions by deposition laser welding with powder at substantially constant deposition parameters without relative rotation between a powder feed nozzle and a laser beam, measuring heights and/or wall thicknesses of the test structure along the test structure, and determining a direction and/or an amount of misalignment of the powder feed nozzle relative to the laser beam based on the measured heights and/or wall thicknesses.

Determining powder feed nozzle misalignment

A method of calibrating a high energy beam with a material source, the method comprising the steps of: using the high energy beam to provide an aperture, depositing material from the material source towards the aperture for a selected length of time and collecting the material which passes through the aperture, and adjusting the position and/or alignment of the material source relative to the high energy beam dependant on a comparison of the amount of material collected with a predetermined value.

Apparatus and method for calibrating a laser deposition system

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Cheshire, United Kingdom

Philip Anthony Carroll