General Electric Company

Scott Alan Gold

Thomas Graham Spears

James Harding Shealy

Lucas Christian Jones

Ajay Kumar Anand

Xiaolei Shi

Christian Xavier Stevenson

Justin Mamrak

MacKenzie Ryan Redding

Zachary David Fieldman

Daniel Joerger

David Henry Abbott

Jonathan Ortner

Shane Matthew Gillespie

John Poland

Patrick Michael Kenney

Jonathan William Ortner

Mackenzie Ryan Redding

A method of calibrating a beam scan field of an additive manufacturing machine in which a radiant energy beam is used to selectively melt material to form a workpiece, the method including: using a radiant energy source, directing a beam using a steering mechanism so as to create a calibration build job on a substrate, the calibration build job including at least one measurement artifact created by the beam; using a calibrated camera, collecting an image of the calibration build job; generating a set of measurements of the calibration build job from the image; comparing the measurements to a standard; in response to the measurements deviating from the standard by more than a predetermined acceptable tolerance, adjusting the steering mechanism; wherein the steps of directing, collecting, generating, comparing, and adjusting are carried out in response to automated commands from an electronic controller.

Automated beam scan calibration, alignment, and adjustment

Systems and methods for optical based monitoring of additive manufacturing processes are provided. In one example a method includes obtaining optical data representing a layer of a structure being manufactured using an additive manufacturing process, comparing the optical data with a standard optical representation associated with the structure, determining one or more nonconformance conditions between the optical data representing the layer and the standard optical representation, and implementing a control action based at least in part on the one or more nonconformance conditions.

In-process optical based monitoring and control of additive manufacturing processes

Devices, systems, methods, and kits of parts for monitoring operation of an electron beam additive manufacturing systems are disclosed. A monitoring system includes one or more measuring devices positioned on the at least one wall in the interior of a build chamber of the additive manufacturing system. Each one of the one or more measuring devices includes a piezoelectric crystal. The monitoring system further includes an analysis component communicatively coupled to the one or more measuring devices. The analysis component is programmed to receive information pertaining to a frequency of oscillation of the piezoelectric crystal. A collection of material on the one or more measuring devices during formation of an article within the build chamber causes a change to the frequency of oscillation of the piezoelectric crystal that is detectable by the analysis component and usable to determine a potential build anomaly of the article.

Monitoring operation of electron beam additive manufacturing with piezoelectric crystals

A ceramic resin is provided, along with its methods of formation and use. The ceramic resin may include a crosslinkable precursor, a photoinitiator, ceramic particles, and pore forming particles. The ceramic resin may be utilized to form a ceramic casting element, such as via a method that includes forming a layer of the ceramic resin; applying light onto the ceramic resin such that the photoinitiator initiates polymerization of the crosslinkable precursor to form a crosslinked polymeric matrix setting the ceramic particles and the pore forming particles; and thereafter, heating the crosslinked polymeric matrix to a first temperature to burn out the pore forming particles.

Resin for production of porous ceramic stereolithography and methods of its use

An additively manufactured component and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The additively manufactured component includes a cross sectional layer having a surface surrounding the cross sectional layer. The cross sectional layer is formed by moving a focal point of an energy source over a bed of additive material. A surface irregularity is formed on the surface by manipulating the energy level of the energy source. The surface may include a datum feature positioned at a predetermined location relative to the surface irregularity and the surface irregularity may be greater than a surface roughness of the surface but less than one millimeter.

Additively manufactured component having surface features for part identification

The present disclosure generally relates to methods and apparatuses for chemical vapor deposition (CVD) during additive manufacturing (AM) processes. Such methods and apparatuses can be used to embed chemical signatures into manufactured objects, and such embedded chemical signatures may find use in anti-counterfeiting operations and in manufacture of objects with multiple materials.

Chemical vapor deposition during additive manufacturing

A system and method of monitoring a powder-bed additive manufacturing process is provided where a layer of additive powder is fused using an energy source and electromagnetic emission signals are measured by a melt pool monitoring system to monitor the print process. The measured emission signals are analyzed to identify outlier emissions and clusters of outliers are identified by assessing the spatial proximity of the outlier emissions, e.g., using clustering algorithms, spatial control charts, etc. An alert may be provided or a process adjustment may be made when a cluster is identified or when a magnitude of a cluster exceeds a predetermined cluster threshold.

Additive manufacturing process

A calibration system for an acoustic monitoring system of an additive manufacturing machine includes a calibration platform removably mountable to a build platform of the additive manufacturing machine and one or more calibrated acoustic sources mounted to the calibration platform. The one or more calibrated acoustic sources define a measurement standard when operating.

System and method for calibrating an acoustic monitoring system of an additive manufacturing machine

This invention relates to a method for calibrating the delay settings of a laser or scanner head in a laser additive manufacturing process. More particularly, the invention relates to calibrating delay settings during run-ins and run-outs of a laser scanning process.

Method for calibrating laser additive manufacturing process

Methods for detecting errors in an additive manufacturing process

A system and method of monitoring a powder-bed additive manufacturing process using a plurality of energy sources is provided. A layer of additive powder is deposited on a powder bed and is fused using a first energy source, a second energy source, or any other suitable number of energy sources. The electromagnetic energy emissions at a first melt pool are monitored by a melt pool monitoring system and recorded as raw emission signals. The melt pool monitoring system may also monitor emissions from the powder bed using off-axis sensors or from a second melt pool using on-axis sensors, and these emissions may be used to modify the raw emission signals to generate compensated emission signals. The compensated emission signals are analyzed to identify outlier emissions and an alert may be provided or a process adjustment may be made when outlier emissions exceed a predetermined signal threshold.

Melt pool monitoring system and method for detecting errors in a multi-laser additive manufacturing process

A system and method for calibrating an acoustic monitoring system of an additive manufacturing machine includes installing a calibration system on the machine and performing a calibration process. Specifically, the calibration system includes a calibration platform removably mountable to a build platform of the additive manufacturing machine and having calibrated acoustic source mounted thereon for defining a measurement standard. The acoustic waves generated by the calibrated acoustic source are measured by the acoustic monitoring system and compared to the known measurement standard to determine whether system adjustments would improve process tolerances or uniformity.

Growing community of inventors

Waynesville, OH, United States of America

Scott Alan Gold