Method for manufacturing porous structures using additive manufacturing
AssigneeOrtho Development Corporation
InventorAnthony P Sanders
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A novel process for creating porous structures via additive manufacturing processes such as material deposition or powder bed fusion additive manufacturing is provided. The process reduces the computational requirement for generation of the porous structure geometry and for processing the porous structure geometry to generate CNC code. The process provides reduced file size for CNC code and avoids large files which may exceed capacity of manufacturing machines. The process also significantly reduces the time required to manufacture the porous structure on an additive manufacturing machine.
Claims24
A method for manufacturing a device having a porous structure through additive manufacturing comprising:
- a computer comprising a processor and memory operatively connected to the computer processor receiving first geometry data describing a shape and size of a portion of porous structure, wherein the porous structure comprises struts of material joined together at node points and spaces between the struts;
- the computer receiving data representing node points, wherein node point pairs define line segments extending between node points along central axis of struts in the porous structure;
- the computer receiving Z coordinate values for manufacturing planes according to a layer thickness;
- the computer analyzing node point pairs according to 3D coordinates of the node points and according to manufacturing plane Z coordinate values to, for each manufacturing plane:
- identify line segments which pass through the manufacturing plane,
- for a manufacturing layer thickness associated with the manufacturing plane, create a projection on the manufacturing plane of a portion of a line segment which passes through the manufacturing layer thickness, and
- creating, in a CNC code file, an additive manufacturing path from the projected line segment for each portion of a line segment passing through the manufacturing layer thickness;
- wherein the CNC code file is suitable for execution on an additive manufacturing machine to thereby manufacture the device.
A method for manufacturing a device having a porous structure through additive manufacturing comprising:
- a computer comprising a processor and memory operatively connected to the processor receiving geometry data describing overall shape and size of a section of a porous structure forming at least part of a device, the porous structure comprising sections of material joined together at node points with void space between sections of material;
- the computer creating a CNC code file to facilitate manufacture of the porous structure by:
- the computer receiving Z coordinate values corresponding to manufacturing planes according to a manufacturing layer thickness;
- the computer analyzing node point pairs according to 3D coordinate data of the node points according to manufacturing plane Z coordinate values to identify intersection points where a line segment between node points intersects the manufacturing layer, and
- the computer creating, in a CNC code file, an additive manufacturing path from the intersection points, and
- the computer outputting the CNC code file for execution on an additive manufacturing machine to cause the machine to manufacture the device through fixation of material along the manufacturing path.
A method for manufacturing a device having a porous structure through additive manufacturing comprising:
- a computer comprising a processor and memory operatively connected to the computer processor receiving geometry data describing shape and size of a section of porous structure forming at least part of a device, the porous structure comprising sections of material joined together at nodes with void space between sections of material;
- the computer creating a CNC code file to facilitate manufacture of the porous structure by:
- receiving Z coordinate values corresponding to manufacturing planes according to a manufacturing layer thickness;
- analyzing line segments formed by node points to identify a first point and a second point associated with a manufacturing plane;
- creating, in the CNC code file, a manufacturing path between the first point and the second point and associated with the manufacturing plane;
- and
- outputting the CNC code file for execution on an additive manufacturing machine to cause the machine to manufacture a section of the porous structure material by forming material along the manufacturing path in a manufacturing layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.