APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FABRICATION WITH CURABLE RESINS BY EXTRUSION AND PHOTO CURING

• US 20190322038A1
• Filed: 12/07/2018
• Published: 10/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2018
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Thompson, Mary Kathryn
• Application Number:
  US16/213,508
• Publication Number:
  US 20190322038A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 1/10 Metallic powder containing lubricating or binding agents; Metallic powder containing organic material
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 10/25 Direct deposition of metal particles, e.g. direct metal deposition [DMD] or laser engineered net shaping [LENS]
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 12/41 characterised by the type, e.g. laser or electron beam
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 12/44 characterised by the configuration of the radiation means
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 12/45 Two or more
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 12/53 Nozzles
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 3/10 Sintering only
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 3/1021 Removal of binder or filler removal of binder from ceramics C04B35/638
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 3/15 Hot isostatic pressing
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 3/227 by organic binder assisted extrusion
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 3/26 Impregnating making ferrous alloys by impregnation C22C33/0242
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/106 using only liquids or viscous materials, e.g. depositing a continuous bead of viscous material
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/135 the energy source being concentrated, e.g. scanning lasers or focused light sources
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/165 using a combination of solid and fluid materials, e.g. a powder selectively bound by a liquid binder, catalyst, inhibitor or energy absorber
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/188 involving additional operations performed on the added layers, e.g. smoothing, grinding or thickness control surface shaping B29C59/00; after-treatment of articles without altering their shape B29C71/00
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/232 for motion along the axis orthogonal to the plane of a layer
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/236 for motion in a direction within the plane of a layer
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/264 Arrangements for irradiation
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/277 using multiple radiation means, e.g. micromirrors or multiple light-emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 70/021 Combinations of fibrous reinforcement and non-fibrous material
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 70/06 : Fibrous reinforcements only
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 70/58 : comprising fillers only , e.g. particles, powder, beads, flakes, spheres B29C70/025 takes precedence, agglomerating hollow spheres to produce synthetic foam B29C70/66; compounding ingredients per se C08K
• CPC Class Codes: B29K 2105/246 : Uncured, e.g. green
• CPC Class Codes: B29K 2505/00 : Use of metals, their alloys or their compounds, as filler
• CPC Class Codes: B29K 2509/00 : Use of inorganic materials not provided for in groups B29K2503/00 - B29K2507/00, as filler
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 10/00 : Processes of additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 30/00 : Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor
• CPC Class Codes: C04B 2235/6026 : Computer aided shaping, e.g. rapid prototyping
• CPC Class Codes: C04B 35/6455 : Hot isostatic pressing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 10/25 : Process efficiency

Abstract

An additive manufacturing apparatus includes: a build surface for receiving and supporting the part; a material depositor operable to selectively deposit a bead of radiant-energy-curable resin on the build surface; one or more actuators operable to change the relative positions of the build surface and the material depositor, such that the bead is deposited along a build path; and a radiant energy apparatus operable to generate and project radiant energy on the deposited material. A method is provided for producing a component using the apparatus.

Claims

1. An additive manufacturing apparatus, comprising:

a build surface;

a material depositor operable to selectively deposit a bead of radiant-energy- curable resin on the build surface;

one or more actuators operable to change the relative positions of the build surface and the material depositor, such that the bead is deposited along a build path; and

a radiant energy apparatus operable to generate and selectively project radiant energy on the deposited resin.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the resin includes a particulate material filler.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radiant energy apparatus is a point source configured to project a beam of radiant energy.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radiant energy apparatus is a scanned beam apparatus.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radiant energy apparatus is a projector operable to project a patterned image

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radiant energy apparatus is an inline cure source that is configured to travel along with the material depositor.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the inline cure source is physically linked to the material depositor, thereby causing it to traverse the build path, at the same speed as the material depositor.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional material depositor which is capable of independent movement.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional radiant energy apparatus which is capable of independent movement.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein multiple radiant energy sources are positioned to at least partially surround the deposited bead.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the radiant energy sources can be moved independently.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radiant energy apparatus is surrounded at least in part within a shield which is radio-opaque.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, further including at least one additional curing radiation source operable to flood the build surface with radiant energy.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further including at least one reflector positioned to reflect the radiant energy from the additional curing source towards the build surface.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the build surface is defined by a top member which is removably secured to a build table.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the material depositor includes a nozzle having a variable orifice size.

17. A method for producing a component, comprising:

using at least one material depositor to selectively deposit a bead of radiant- energy-curable resin on a build surface or connected to resin that has already been deposited on the build surface, wherein, during deposition, one or more actuators are used to change the relative positions of the build surface and the material depositor, such that the bead is deposited along a build path;

selectively curing at least a part of the bead of resin using an application of radiant energy from at least one radiant energy apparatus; and

repeating the steps of depositing and curing until the component is complete.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein at least a portion of the bead is locally, nonselectively cured.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein different portions of the bead are cured using two or more different radiant energy apparatuses, at least one of which is selective and at least one of which is nonselective.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein at least one of the radiant energy apparatuses is a scanned beam apparatus.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein two or more adjacent beads are deposited and cured as a series of laterally-overlapping trails.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein two or more adjacent beads are deposited with a predetermined lateral spacing

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the resin includes a particulate material filler.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising sintering the component to burn out the cured resin and consolidate the filler.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising infiltrating a lower-melting-temperature material into the component during or after sintering.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising a hot isostatic pressing step.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the resin is supplied such that the resin in at least one section of the component has a different composition than the resin in another section of the component.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein the resin contains a mixture of more than one material.

29. The method of claim 21 wherein the finished component is post-cured by flooding the component with radiant energy.