System and method of manufacturing an additively manufactured object
AssigneePostProcess Technologies, Inc.
InventorDaniel Joshua Hutchinson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems according to the invention may be used to modify a manufacturing plan for an object manufactured by an additive manufacturing process. A digital representation of a desired object and a manufacturing plan may be compared to manufacturing information generated via an evaluation of such an object. Based on that comparison, the manufacturing plan may be modified so that that object or a subsequent object is highly similar to the desired object.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method of manufacturing an object via additive manufacturing, comprising:
- providing a digital representation of a desired object and a manufacturing plan, the manufacturing plan having instructions for both building and finishing an object that should produce the desired object via an additive manufacturing process, wherein the desired object has desired characteristics;
- building and finishing the object via the additive manufacturing process according to the manufacturing plan to produce a manufactured object;
- while finishing the object, capturing operating information at a finishing machine that uses settings in the manufacturing plan to finish the object;
- modifying the instructions in the manufacturing plan for building the object to produce a modified manufacturing plan using the operating information captured at the finishing machine.
A system for modifying a manufacturing plan for an additively manufactured object, wherein the manufacturing plan has desired steps which when carried out should produce the desired object via an additive manufacturing process, comprising:
- a build machine for carrying out an additive manufacturing part-making process to produce an interim object;
- a finishing machine operative to perform a finishing operation on the interim object;
- and
- a coordinating computer including a microprocessor programmed to:
- (a) receive manufacturing information from the build machine and the finishing machine;
- (b) compare the manufacturing information to desired characteristics of the additively manufactured object and the desired steps to identify differences between the manufacturing information and the desired characteristics of the additively manufactured object or the manufacturing plan;
- and (c) use the manufacturing information captured at the finishing machine to modify the instructions in the manufacturing plan for building the object to produce a modified manufacturing plan.
A computer-implemented method of manufacturing completed objects using additive manufacturing, comprising:
- using building instructions to operate an additive manufacturing machine to build an interim object;
- finishing the interim object in a finishing operation to produce one completed object;
- capturing information while finishing the interim object;
- developing modified building instructions based on the information captured during the finishing operation;
- and
- forming a manufacturing plan that combines the modified building instructions with finishing instructions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.