# US 11,298,884 B2 · Additive manufacturing systems and methods of pretreating and additively printing on workpieces > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,298,884 B2 - Document ID: US11298884B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/434,384 - Filed: 2019-06-07 - Published: 2020-12-10 - Granted: 2022-04-12 - Earliest claimed: 2019-06-07 - Assignees: General Electric Company - Applicants: General Electric Company - Inventors: Jinjie Shi; Richard Roy Worthing, Jr.; Hongqing Sun - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11298884B2 ## CPC - B29C 64/393: for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes - G05B 19/4099: Surface or curve machining, making three-dimensional [3D] objects, e.g. desktop manufacturing - B29C 64/153: using layers of powder being selectively joined, e.g. by selective laser sintering or melting - B29C 64/268: using laser beams; using electron beams [EB] - B29C 64/35: Cleaning - B29C 73/24: Apparatus or accessories not otherwise provided for - F01D 5/005: {Repairing methods or devices} - B29L 2031/08: Blades for rotors, stators, fans, turbines or the like, e.g. screw propellers - B33Y 10/00: Processes of additive manufacturing - B33Y 30/00: Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor - B33Y 50/02: for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes - B33Y 80/00: Products made by additive manufacturing - F05D 2230/80: Repairing, retrofitting or upgrading methods - G05B 2219/49008: Making 3-D object with model in computer memory - G05B 2219/49023: 3-D printing, layer of powder, add drops of binder in layer, new powder - Y02P 10/25: Process efficiency - B29C: SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING (making preforms B29B11/00; making laminated products by combining previously unconnected layers which become one product whose layers will remain together B32B37/00 - B32B41/00) - G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G) - F01D: NON-POSITIVE DISPLACEMENT MACHINES OR ENGINES, e.g. STEAM TURBINES (machines or engines for liquids F03; non-positive displacement pumps F04D) - B29L: INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASS B29C, RELATING TO PARTICULAR ARTICLES - B33Y: ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, i.e. MANUFACTURING OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL [3D] OBJECTS BY ADDITIVE DEPOSITION, ADDITIVE AGGLOMERATION OR ADDITIVE LAYERING, e.g. BY 3D PRINTING, STEREOLITHOGRAPHY OR SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING - F05D: INDEXING SCHEME FOR ASPECTS RELATING TO NON-POSITIVE-DISPLACEMENT MACHINES OR ENGINES, GAS-TURBINES OR JET-PROPULSION PLANTS - Y02P: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS ## Abstract Methods of additively printing an extension segment on a workpiece may include pretreating a workpiece-interface of a workpiece using an energy beam from an additive manufacturing machine, providing a pretreated workpiece-interface having received a pretreatment, with the pretreatment remediating an aberrant feature of the workpiece and/or the workpiece-interface. Such methods may additionally include additively printing an extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface using the energy beam from the additive manufacturing machine. Exemplary additive manufacturing system for printing an extension segment on a workpiece may include a controller operably coupled to a vision system and an additive manufacturing machine. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method of additively printing an extension segment on a workpiece, the method comprising: pretreating a workpiece-interface of a workpiece using an energy beam source from an additive manufacturing machine, providing a pretreated workpiece-interface having received a pretreatment, the pretreatment remediating an aberrant feature of the workpiece and/or the workpiece-interface; and additively printing an extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface using an energy beam emitted from the energy beam from the additive manufacturing machine; wherein the aberrant feature comprises one or more aberrant regions of the workpiece interface that differ in elevation and/or that are at least partially askew relative to a congruent region of the workpiece-interface, the one or more aberrant regions having been determined from one or more digital representations of the workpiece-interface captured by a vision system, and wherein the pretreatment comprises additive-interface captured by a vision system; and wherein the pretreatment comprises additive-leveling at least a portion of the workpiece-interface comprising a first one of the one or more aberrant regions and/or melt-leveling at least a portion of the workpiece-interface comprising a second one of the one or more aberrant regions. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, comprising: determining the workpiece-interface from the one or more digital representations captured by vision system; and transmitting to the additive manufacturing machine, one or more pretreatment commands configured to expose the workpiece-interface to the pretreatment. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, comprising: transmitting to the additive manufacturing machine, one or more print commands configured to additively print the extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, comprising: generating the one or more pretreatment commands based at least in part on the one or more digital representations of the workpiece-interface; and/or generating the one or more print commands based at least in part on the one or more digital representations of the workpiece-interface. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, comprising: determining the pretreated workpiece-interface from the one or more digital representations of the pretreated workpiece-interface having been captured by the vision system; and transmitting to the additive manufacturing machine, one or more print commands configured to additively print the extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the pretreatment comprises: heat-conditioning at least a portion of the workpiece-interface. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the pretreatment comprises: removing oxidation, contaminants, debris, and/or subtractive modification artifacts from at least a portion of the workpiece-interface. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the pretreatment comprises: modifying the grain structure of the workpiece at or near the workpiece-interface. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the pretreatment comprises: additive-leveling a first portion of the workpiece-interface comprising a first aberrant region; and melt-leveling a second portion of the workpiece-interface comprising a second aberrant region. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, comprising: pretreating the workpiece-interface using the energy beam source to emit an energy beam at a first energy density and additively printing the extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface using the energy beam at a second energy density, wherein the first energy density is from about 10% to about 100% of the second energy density. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, comprising: pretreating the workpiece-interface using the energy mean source to emit an energy beam at a first energy density and additively printing the extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface using the energy beam at a second energy density, wherein the first energy density is from about 100% to about 300% of the second energy density. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, comprising: additively printing the extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface using an energy density of from about 70 J/mm ∧3 to about 200 J/mm ∧3. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the extension segment exhibits a relative density of from about 0.950 to about 0.9999. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, comprising: pretreating the workpiece-interface based at least in part on a pretreatment-CAD model, the pretreatment-CAD model generated and/or determined based at least in part on the one or more digital representations of the workpiece-interface; and/or additively printing the extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface based at least in part on an extension segment-CAD model, the extension segment-CAD model generated and/or determined based at least in part on the one or more digital representations of the workpiece-interface. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the workpiece comprises a compressor blade and/or a turbine bladed and wherein the extension segment comprises a blade tip. ### Claim 16 An additive manufacturing system, comprising: a controller operably coupled to a vision system and an additive manufacturing machine, the controller comprising one or more non-transitory computer readable medium and one or more processors, the one or more non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the additive manufacturing system to perform a method comprising: pretreating a workpiece-interface using an energy beam emitted from an energy beam source of the additive manufacturing machine, providing a pretreated workpiece-interface, wherein pretreating the workpiece-interface comprises remediating an aberrant feature of the workpiece and/or the workpiece-interface at least in part by additive-leveling the workpiece-interface and/or melt-leveling the workpiece-interface; and additively printing an extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface using an energy beam emitted from the energy beam source of the additive manufacturing machine; wherein the aberrant feature comprises one or more aberrant regions of the workpiece-interface that differ in elevation and/or that are at least partially askew relative to a congruent region of the workpiece-interface, the one or more aberrant regions having been determined from one or more digital representations of the workpiece captured by the vision system; and wherein the pretreatment comprises additive-leveling at least a portion of the workpiece-interface comprising a first one of the one or more aberrant regions and/or melt-leveling at least a portion of the workpiece-interface comprising a second one of the one or more aberrant regions. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The additive manufacturing system of claim 16, Wherein the computer-executable instructions, When executed by the one or more processes, cause the additive manufacturing system to perform the method, the method further comprising: determining the workpiece-interface from the one or more digital representations captured by the vision system; and transmitting the additive manufacturing machine, one or more pretreatment commands configured to expose the workpiece-interface to the pretreatment. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The additive manufacturing system of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the additive manufacturing system to perform the method, the method further comprising: determining the pretreated workpiece-interface from the one or more digital representations of the pretreated workpiece-interface having been captured by the vision system; and transmitting to the additive manufacturing machine, one or more print commands configured to additively print the extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface. ### Claim 19 (depends on 16) The additive manufacturing system of claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the additive manufacturing system to perform the method, the method further comprising: pretreating the workpiece-interface using an energy beam emitted from the energy source at a first energy density, and additively printing the extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface using an energy beam emitted from the energy beam source at a second energy density, wherein the first energy density is from about 10% to about 100% of the second energy density. ### Claim 20 A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by one or more processors associated with an additive manufacturing machine, cause the additive manufacturing machine to perform a method comprising: pretreating a workpiece-interface using an energy beam from the additive manufacturing machine, providing a pretreated workpiece-interface, wherein pretreat the workpiece-interface comprises remediating an aberrant feature of the workpiece and/or the workpiece-interface at least in part by additive-leveling the workpiece-interface and/or melt-leveling the workpiece-interface; and additively printing an extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface using an energy beam emitted from the energy beam source of from the additive manufacturing machine; wherein the aberrant feature comprises one or more aberrant regions of the workpiece-interface that differ in elevation and/or that are at least partially askew relative to a congruent region of the workpiece-interface, the one or more aberrant regions having been determined from one or more digital representations of the workpiece-interface captured by a vision system; and wherein the pretreatment comprises additive-leveling at least a portion of the workpiece-interface comprising a first one of the one or more aberrant regions and/or melt-leveling at least a portion of the workpiece-interface comprising a second one of the one or more aberrant regions.