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US 11,801,633 B2Granted
Apparatuses for continuously refreshing a recoater blade for additive manufacturing including a blade feed unit and arm portion
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsTodd Jay Rockstroh, Zachary David Fieldman, Theodore Anderson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure generally relates to additive manufacturing systems and methods involving a mechanism for feeding in a desired amount of fresh recoater blade. This can be accomplished by, for example, spooling the fresh blade material from a spool. This helps prevent work stoppage when a portion of a recoater blade becomes damaged. As such, the present disclosure also relates to a system and method for detecting whether a recoater blade is damaged, and if there is damage, then causing a fresh blade portion to be fed in.
Claims18
An apparatus comprising:
- a powder bed area around a build plate;
- an energy directing device;
- a recoater arm comprising an arm portion and a blade portion, wherein the blade portion is below the arm portion and protrudes from the arm portion;
- a powder dispensing unit;
- and
- a blade feed unit comprising blade material, wherein the blade feed unit is a payout spool.
3 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- a powder bed area around a build plate;
- an energy directing device;
- a recoater arm comprising an arm portion and a continuous feed recoater blade having a blade portion, wherein the blade portion is below the arm portion and protrudes from the arm portion;
- a powder dispensing unit;
- a blade feed unit comprising blade material;
- and
- a camera for detecting whether the blade portion or the object is damaged, the camera being attached to the recoater arm.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.