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US 11,993,022 B2Granted
Separation of objects for additive manufacturing
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsQuim Muntal Diaz, Jordi Sanroma Garrit, Manuel Freire Garcia
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an example a tangible machine-readable medium stores instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to determine an object generation arrangement for additive manufacturing based on a separation distance between objects, wherein the separation distance varies based on an intended location of object generation.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a processor, specification of a first zone and a second zone of a build volume of an additive manufacturing apparatus, the first zone and the second zone having been predefined in that objects additively manufactured in the first zone have to be separated from neighboring objects by at least a first separation distance and in that objects additively manufactured in the second zone have to be separated from neighboring objects by at least a second separation distance;
- after the first zone and the second zone have already been predefined, generating, by the processor, a plurality of candidate arrangements of a plurality of specific objects to be additively manufactured within the build volume, each candidate arrangement specifying a position and an orientation of each specific object within the build volume, such that each candidate arrangement includes first objects of the plurality of objects in the first zone and second objects of the plurality of objects in the second zone, wherein definition of the first zone and the second zone is identical for each candidate arrangement and does not change when generating each candidate arrangement;
- identifying, by the processor, a sub-plurality of the candidate arrangements in each of which all the first objects satisfy the first separation distance and in which all the second objects satisfy the second separation distance, such that in each of the candidate arrangements other than the sub-plurality, at least one of the first objects does not satisfy the first separation distance and/or at least one of the second objects does not satisfy the second separation distance;
- selecting, by the processor, one of the identified sub-plurality of the candidate arrangements;
- and
- causing, by the processor, the additive manufacturing apparatus to additively manufacture the plurality of specific objects within the build volume in the candidate arrangement that has been selected.
3 more elements
A system comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- a memory storing program code executable by the processor to:
- receive specification of a first zone and a second zone of a build volume of an additive manufacturing apparatus, the first zone and the second zone having been predefined in that objects additively manufactured in the first zone have to be separated from neighboring objects by at least a first separation distance and in that objects additively manufactured in the second zone have to be separated from neighboring objects by at least a second separation distance;
- after the first zone and the second zone have already been predefined, generate a plurality of candidate arrangements of a plurality of specific objects to be additively manufactured within the build volume, each candidate arrangement specifying a position and an orientation of each specific object within the build volume, such that each candidate arrangement includes first objects of the plurality of objects in the first zone and second objects of the plurality of objects in the second zone, wherein definition of the first zone and the second zone is identical for each candidate arrangement and does not change when generating each candidate arrangement;
- identify a sub-plurality of the candidate arrangements in each of which all the first objects satisfy the first separation distance and in which all the second objects satisfy the second separation distance, such that in each of the candidate arrangements other than the sub-plurality, at least one of the first objects does not satisfy the first separation distance and/or at least one of the second objects does not satisfy the second separation distance;
- select one of the identified sub-plurality of the candidate arrangements;
- and
- cause the additive manufacturing apparatus to additively manufacture the plurality of specific objects within the build volume in the candidate arrangement that has been selected.
6 more elements
A non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium storing program code executable by a processor to perform processing comprising:
- receiving specification of a first zone and a second zone of a build volume of an additive manufacturing apparatus, the first zone and the second zone having been predefined in that objects additively manufactured in the first zone have to be separated from neighboring objects by at least a first separation distance and in that objects additively manufactured in the second zone have to be separated from neighboring objects by at least a second separation distance;
- after the first zone and the second zone have already been predefined, generating a plurality of candidate arrangements of a plurality of specific objects to be additively manufactured within the build volume, each candidate arrangement specifying a position and an orientation of each specific object within the build volume, such that each candidate arrangement includes first objects of the plurality of objects in the first zone and second objects of the plurality of objects in the second zone, wherein definition of the first zone and the second zone is identical for each candidate arrangement and does not change when generating each candidate arrangement;
- identifying a sub-plurality of the candidate arrangements in each of which all the first objects satisfy the first separation distance and in which all the second objects satisfy the second separation distance, such that in each of the candidate arrangements other than the sub-plurality, at least one of the first objects does not satisfy the first separation distance and/or at least one of the second objects does not satisfy the second separation distance;
- selecting one of the identified sub-plurality of the candidate arrangements;
- and
- causing the additive manufacturing apparatus to additively manufacture the plurality of specific objects within the build volume in the candidate arrangement that has been selected.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.