# US 12,179,268 B2 · Dynamic slicing method for additive manufacturing forming with variable forming direction > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,179,268 B2 - Document ID: US12179268B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/547,258 - Filed: 2021-12-10 - Published: 2022-03-31 - Granted: 2024-12-31 - Earliest claimed: 2019-06-13 - Assignees: Xi'an Jiaotong University - Applicants: Xi'an Jiaotong University - Inventors: Zhengying Wei; Xuhui Lai; Huanqing Yang - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12179268B2 ## CPC - B22F 10/28: Powder bed fusion, e.g. selective laser melting [SLM] or electron beam melting [EBM] - B22F 10/80: Data acquisition or data processing - B33Y 50/00: Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing - G05B 19/4099: Surface or curve machining, making three-dimensional [3D] objects, e.g. desktop manufacturing - G06F 30/10: Geometric CAD - G05B 2219/49007: Making, forming 3-D object, model, surface - G05B 2219/49023: 3-D printing, layer of powder, add drops of binder in layer, new powder - G06F 2113/10: Additive manufacturing, e.g. three-dimensional [3D] printing - Y02P 10/25: Process efficiency - B22F: WORKING METALLIC POWDER; MANUFACTURE OF ARTICLES FROM METALLIC POWDER; MAKING METALLIC POWDER (making alloys by powder metallurgy C22C); APPARATUS OR DEVICES SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR METALLIC POWDER - 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 - 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) - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) - Y02P: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS ## Abstract An EBM variable-direction formation dynamic slicing method in cooperation with an 840D digital control system includes: creating a vertex array object, adjusting a projection matrix to a slice height, outputting a binary image of a two-dimensional cross-section; obtaining, by means of two-dimensional contour extraction, data of a contour line from the binary image, outputting coordinates of a closed contour, and connecting all adjacent coordinates into a straight line to form a closed curve; when a triangle tolerance is 1, dividing contour data into a straight line part and a curve part by taking a starting point of small straight lines with an angle of 140° therebetween as a dividing point, removing adjacent points, repeated points and internal points of a same straight line, and performing segmentation fitting on curve parts of the slice data, and then performing dynamic slicing through the 840D numerical control system. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An electron beam manufacturing (EBM) variable-direction formation dynamic slicing method in cooperation with a numerical control system, comprising: step S1: loading an STL file, creating a vertex array object (VAO), turning on a template buffer, adjusting a projection matrix to a slice height in rendering of a three-dimensional (3D) model, traversing all pixels in a field of view sequentially by determining an intersection between a viewpoint and a voxel using a reverse ray tracing algorithm, reading image data from pixels at a set height, and outputting a binary image of a two-dimensional cross-section; step S2: obtaining, by means of two-dimensional contour extraction, data of a contour line from the binary image obtained in the step S1, outputting coordinates of a closed contour, and connecting all adjacent coordinates into a straight line in such a manner that respective straight lines are connected end to end to form a closed curve; and step S3: when a triangle tolerance is 1, dividing contour data into a straight line part and a curve part by taking a starting point of small straight lines with an angle of 140° therebetween as a dividing point, removing adjacent points, repeated points and internal points of a same straight line, and performing segmentation fitting on curve parts of the slice data by using a NURBS curve, and then performing dynamic slicing through the numerical control system, wherein after the fitting in the step S3 is completed, an angle of a worktable of the numerical control system is adjusted based on a formation direction of each feature of the model; a first motor, a third motor and a fifth motor of the numerical control system are linked to complete spatial curve formation; the first motor moves by rotating and a second motor of the numerical control system moves in a straight line to work in cooperation with each other, to form a straight line, a full circle, an arc and an Archimedes spiral in the plane, for use in contour approximation fitting, island profile filling, full circle formation, straight line formation, arc formation during curve formation; and a quick response is made to a setting of dry elongation, a distance between a formation plane and an electron gun is dynamically adjusted, the slicing is performed. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The EBM variable-direction formation dynamic slicing method in cooperation with the numerical control system according to claim 1, wherein the step S1 comprises: determining whether a ray directed to a pixel from the viewpoint intersects with a 3D grid based on a positional relation between an STL grid and any coordinate point x in space, a ray r(d) emitted from a camera position and a plane equation of any triangle grid in space, and traversing all pixels in the field of view sequentially to obtain the binary image of the 3D model at a specified height. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The EBM variable-direction formation dynamic slicing method in cooperation with the numerical control system according to claim 2, wherein, when using the reverse ray tracing algorithm, the positional relation between the STL grid and any coordinate point x in space is expressed as: f ⁡ ( x ) = { - 1 the ⁢ coordinate ⁢ point ⁢ is ⁢ outside ⁢ the ⁢ model 0 the ⁢ coordinate ⁢ point ⁢ is ⁢ on ⁢ the ⁢ model 1 the ⁢ coordinate ⁢ point ⁢ is ⁢ inside ⁢ the ⁢ model ; the ray r (d) emitted from the camera position is: r(d)=c+dn, where d>0, d denotes a ray distance, and denotes coordinates of the camera position; and the plane equation of any triangle grid in space is: [r(d)−o)]·N=0, where o denotes coordinates of the triangle grid, and N is a normal vector of the triangle grid. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The EBM variable-direction formation dynamic slicing method in cooperation with the numerical control system according to claim 1, wherein the step S1 comprises: performing 3D slicing by using the template buffer, and rendering the model three times by means of ray tracing, including: adding one to a value of f(x) when an external grid is encountered, subtracting one from the value of f(x) when an internal grid is encountered, and deleting an area with a value of 0 in a buffer. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The EBM variable-direction formation dynamic slicing method in cooperation with the numerical control system according to claim 1, wherein, in the step S2, the contour extraction comprises: step S201: storing coordinates and marks of a position into a specific array; step S202: extracting a block from the grid as a currently active block and obtaining coordinates and bump information of four grid points; and step S203: setting adjacent coordinates after searching as p1(x1, y1) and p2(x2, y2), performing an interpolation correction on a sequence of coordinates with a midpoint as an intersection point to obtain an interpolation point p(x, y), and completing the contour extraction. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The EBM variable-direction formation dynamic slicing method in cooperation with the numerical control system according to claim 5, wherein the interpolation point y = y 1 + y 2 - y 1 x 2 - x 1 ⁢ ( x - x 1 ) . ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The EBM variable-direction formation dynamic slicing method in cooperation with the numerical control system according to claim 1, wherein, in the step S3, a BSPLINE interpolation function of the numerical control system smoothly connect scattered coordinate points through control points and weight factors, and a linear velocity is always constant during a formation process, contour coordinate points generated by the slicing are set as {Vk}, k=0, 1, . . . , n, a node vector U={u0, u1, . . . , um}, a node corresponding to any coordinate point Vk is ūk, n+1 linear equations are constructed according to n coordinate points; data points are parameterized with centripetal parameterization method; fitting is performed by using a cubic spline curve. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The EBM variable-direction formation dynamic slicing method in cooperation with the numerical control system according to claim 7, wherein the n+1 linear equations are as follows: V k = S ⁡ ( u _ k ) = ∑ i = 0 n N i , p ( u _ k ) ⁢ C i , where the control point Ci is a quantity to be determined, Ni,p represents a primary function of the NURBS curve at an ith coordinate, p represents an order of the primary function, and the node value ūk is within [0,1]; the data points are parameterized as: u _ k = u _ k - 1 + ❘ "\[LeftBracketingBar]" V k - V k - 1 ❘ "\[RightBracketingBar]" ∑ k = 1 n ❘ "\[LeftBracketingBar]" V k - V k - 1 ❘ "\[RightBracketingBar]" , where k=1, 2, . . . , n−1, ū0=0, and ūn=0; in order to ensure that tangents of curves on both sides of the dividing point are collinear, first-order derivative vectors at endpoints are respectively set as F0 and Fn, and a repeatability of the curve at the endpoints is 3: uj+d=ūj, where j=1, 2, . . . , n−p, ū0= . . . =ū3=0, and ūn+1= . . . =ūn+6=1; an equation of endpoints of the curve and a first-order derivative vector equation controlling a direction of the curve are: { C 0 = V 0 - C 0 + C 1 = u 4 3 ⁢ F 0 - C n + 1 + C n + 2 = 1 - u n + 2 3 ⁢ F n C n + 2 = V n , except for the endpoints, a repeatability of each internal node is 1, and at most three non-zero basis functions are provided for node uj; and n−1 equations excluding the endpoints are: Vk=Nk,3(ūk)Ck+Nk+1,3(ūk)Ck+1+Nk+2,3(ūk)Ck+2, where ak=Nk,3(ūk), bk=Nk+1,2(ūk), ck=Nk+2,3(ūk), Nk,3, Nk+1,3, Nk+2,3 represent the primary function of the NURBS curve at a kth coordinate, a k+1th coordinate, and a k+2th coordinate, respectively, the primary function has an order of 3, and a linear equation set with a coefficient of (n−1)×(n−1) is calculated as follows: [ V 1 - a 1 ⁢ C 1 V 2 ⋮ V n - 2 V n - 1 - c n - 1 ⁢ C n - 1 ] = [ b 1 c 1 0 … 0 0 0 a 2 b 2 c 2 … 0 0 0 ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮0 0 0 0 … a n - 2 b n - 2 c n - 2 0 0 0 … 0 a n - 1 b n - 1 ] [ C 2 C 3 ⋮ C n - 1 C n ] . ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The EBM variable-direction formation dynamic slicing method in cooperation with the numerical control system according to claim 1, wherein, when an axis of a solid model after feature decomposition is a straight line, slicing is performed along the axis of each feature during a slicing process; after slicing in a direction of one feature is completed, the fifth motor is rotated by 90° for formation of a next feature; when the axis of the model after feature decomposition is a curve, the model is rotated 180 times by 180 degrees in an increment of δ=1°, and a minimum bounding box is calculated for each time; a position with a smallest box volume is the best placement position for the model; a surface P3 with a smallest area in the bounding box is used as an initial slicing surface, taking a longest side as a slicing direction and a surface with a largest area as a test slicing plane P1; a curvature change of a slice contour obtained by cutting the model along P1 is used as an adjustment basis for a change of the slicing direction; during the slicing process, an angle θ between a slope of the curve and a Z axis is calculated based on a set slice thickness; and the model is cut along the slicing direction after being rotated to the angle θ each time; in variable-direction formation, the fifth motor gradually rotates following a change of a curvature, in such a manner that a formation plane is always parallel to the worktable; when an actual formation surface has a contour having ups and downs, the fifth motor is configured to swing left and right in accordance with fed back data on a position of the electron gun, in such a manner that a distance between the electron gun and a workpiece is stable at all times; and then, the fifth motor, the first motor and the third motor move in cooperation with each other to form a spatial curve, which changes following a contour of a surface of a molten pool.