System and process for evaluating and validating additive manufacturing operations

A method of evaluating and validating additive manufacturing operations comprising:

• generating a multidimensional space defined by a plurality of bounds, each of said bounds being defined on a distinct parameter of an additive manufacturing process and each of said parameters being directly related to the occurrence of a horizontal lack of fusion flaw, each of said parameters being a dimension in a multi-dimensional coordinate system and being defined by at least one corresponding mathematical function, wherein at least one of the at least one corresponding mathematical functions is determined via simulation;
• determining a coordinate position of at least one additive manufacturing operation within the multi-dimensional coordinate system;
• categorizing the operation as free of horizontal lack of fusion flaws when the coordinate position is within the multi-dimensional space;
• and
• wherein at least one of the parameters is partially unbounded.

An additive manufacturing apparatus comprising:

• a chamber;
• a platform within said chamber;
• and
• a controller, the controlling including a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions for causing the processor to validate at least one input operation as generating a workpiece free of horizontal lack of fusion flaws by determining a multi-dimensional coordinate in response to receiving the at least one input operation, and comparing the multi-dimensional coordinate to a stored multi-dimensional space, the stored multi-dimensional space being defined by a plurality of bounds, each of said bounds being defined on a distinct parameter of an additive manufacturing process, each distinct parameter of the additive manufacturing system being defined by at least one corresponding mathematical function, wherein the parameters of the additive manufacturing process include a beam power, a beam velocity, a local part temperature, a powder bed thickness, and a powder particle size and each of said parameters is directly related to the occurrence of a horizontal lack of fusion flaw, and wherein at least one of the at least one corresponding mathematical functions is determined via simulation and at least one of the parameters is partially unbounded.

A method of evaluating and validating additive manufacturing operations comprising:

• generating a multidimensional space defined by a plurality of bounds, each of said bounds being defined on a distinct parameter of an additive manufacturing process and each of said parameters being directly related to the occurrence of a horizontal lack of fusion flaw, each of said parameters being a dimension in a multi-dimensional coordinate system and at least one of said parameters is partially unbounded;
• determining a coordinate position of at least one additive manufacturing operation within the multi-dimensional coordinate system;
• and
• categorizing the operation as free of horizontal lack of fusion flaws when the coordinate position is within the multi-dimensional space.