Mass customization in additive manufacturing

An additive manufacturing system for the rapid production of an object from a light-polymerizable resin, the additive manufacturing system comprising:

• an additive manufacturing apparatus;
• a processor;
• and
• a memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out, with said additive manufacturing apparatus, operations comprising:
• (a) inputting into the processor a boundary shape and a plurality of desired mechanical properties for said object;
• (b) subdividing said boundary shape into a plurality of adjacent work cells in the processor;
• (c) providing a plurality of lattices in a database, each lattice of the database including a geometry and a mechanical property;
• (d) filling a first one of said work cells with a lattice from the database, the lattice selected based on the correspondence of the mechanical properties of said lattice to said desired mechanical properties of said object;
• (e) filling the remaining ones of said work cells with lattices from said database to produce a filled boundary shape in the processor, each said lattice selected based on:
• (i) the correspondence of the mechanical properties of said lattice to the desired mechanical properties of the object, and (ii) the compatibility of adjacent lattices in adjacent work cells with one another;
• then
• (f) producing said object by additive manufacturing from the light-polymerizable resin and the filled boundary shape,
• wherein said database includes a manufacturability score for said additive manufacturing step for each said lattice, and said filling steps (d)-(e) are carried out with preference for lattices having a higher manufacturability score.

A computer program product for the rapid production of an object from a light-polymerizable resin, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable software code sections embodied in the medium, which software code sections are configured to carry out operations comprising:

• (a) inputting into a processor a boundary shape and a plurality of desired mechanical properties for said object;
• (b) subdividing said boundary shape into a plurality of adjacent work cells in the processor;
• (c) providing a plurality of lattices in a database, each lattice of the database including a geometry and a mechanical property;
• (d) filling a first one of said work cells with a lattice from the database, the lattice selected based on the correspondence of the mechanical properties of said lattice to said desired mechanical properties of said object;
• (e) filling the remaining ones of said work cells with lattices from said database to produce a filled boundary shape in the processor, each said lattice selected based on:
• (i) the correspondence of the mechanical properties of said lattice to the desired mechanical properties of the object, and (ii) the compatibility of adjacent lattices in adjacent work cells with one another;
• then
• (f) producing said object by additive manufacturing from the light-polymerizable resin and the filled boundary shape,
• wherein said database includes a manufacturability score for said additive manufacturing step for each said lattice, and said filling steps (d)-(e) are carried out with preference for lattices having a higher manufacturability score.