Foil fusion additive manufacturing system and method

An additive manufacturing system for forming a object, comprising:

• at least one foil supply drum configured to be rotated for dispensing a foil sheet over a substrate surface supported by a build element;
• at least one foil take-up drum configured to take up the foil sheet during dispensing by the foil supply drum;
• at least one melting energy source configured to direct at least one melting energy beam onto a non-melted region of the foil sheet located over the substrate surface;
• and
• a processor configured to execute computable readable program instructions based on a three-dimensional digital definition of the object, and control the melting energy beam to selectively melt at least some of the non-melted region into melted portions for successively forming a plurality of material layers of the object, and fusing a majority of each material layer to the substrate while separating the melted portions from non-melted portions, and command synchronized rotation of the foil supply drum and foil take-up drum for dispensing the foil sheet during additive manufacturing of the object in correspondence with the digital definition.

A method of additively manufacturing an object, comprising:

• (a) dispensing, by rotating a foil supply drum, a foil sheet over a substrate surface supported by a build element;
• (b) directing, from at least one melting energy source, at least one melting energy beam onto a non-melted region of the foil sheet located over the substrate surface;
• (c) melting, using the melting energy beam, the non-melted region into one or more melted portions to successively form a plurality of material layers over the substrate surface and fusing a majority of each material layer to the substrate surface in accordance with a three-dimensional digital definition of the object while separating or cutting the melted portions from non-melted portions to form perimeter edges of the material layer in correspondence with the digital definition;
• (d) rotating the foil supply drum to dispense another non-melted region of the foil sheet over the material layer;
• and
• (e) repeating steps (a) through (d) until completion of the object according to the digital definition.