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US 12,565,004 B2Granted
Additive manufacturing
AssigneeAdditive Manufacturing Technologies Limited
InventorsJoseph Gwilliam Crabtree, Konstantin Rybalcenko, Andre Gaio
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to a system (100) for automatically processing an additively manufactured part. The system comprises an inspection module (120) for determining at least one part parameter associated with a surface finish quality of the part, a processing module (118) for processing a surface of the part responsive to the at least one part parameter and controller (102) configured to modify a processing parameter of a surface finishing process, performed by the processing module, based on the at least one part parameter determined by the inspection module.
Claims13
A method of automatically processing an additively manufactured part, comprising:
- providing the additively manufactured part;
- by a robotic system, transferring the additively manufactured part to a de-powdering module configured to remove unprocessed support powder surrounding the additively manufactured part;
- by the de-powdering module, removing unprocessed support powder surrounding the additively manufactured part;
- by a conveyer, moving the part from the de-powdering module to an inspection module for determining at least one part parameter associated with a surface finish of the part;
- by the inspection module, analysing a surface of the de-powdered additively manufactured part to determine at least one part parameter associated with a surface finish of the additively manufactured part, wherein said at least one part parameter is selected from the group consisting of a surface texture of the additively manufactured part, a surface colour of the additively manufactured part, and a combination thereof, and sending information relating to the surface texture and surface colour of the de-powdered additively manufactured part to a controller;
- by the conveyor, moving the additively manufactured part from the inspection module to a processing module configured to process a surface of the additively manufactured part responsive to the at least one part parameter;
- by the controller, modifying a processing parameter of the surface finishing process to be performed on the additively manufactured part by the processing module based on the information relating to the surface texture and surface colour of the de-powdered additively manufactured part sent to the controller by the inspection module, and sending said modified processing parameter to the processing module;
- and
- by the processing module, smoothing, colouring, or both, a surface of the de-powdered additively manufactured part based on the modified processing parameter sent to the processing module by the controller.
6 more elements
A method of automatically processing an additively manufactured part, comprising:
- providing an additively manufactured part;
- by a robotic system, transferring the additively manufactured part to a de-powdering module configured to remove unprocessed support powder surrounding the additively manufactured part;
- by the de-powdering module, removing unprocessed support powder surrounding the additively manufactured part;
- by a conveyor, moving the part from the de-powdering module to an inspection module for determining at least one part parameter associated with a surface finish of the part;
- by the inspection module, analysing a surface of the de-powdered additively manufactured part to determine at least one part parameter associated with a surface finish of the part, wherein the at least one part parameter is a surface texture and/or roughness of the additively manufactured part, and sending information relating to the surface texture and/or roughness of the de-powdered additively manufactured part to a controller;
- by the conveyor, moving the additively manufactured part from the inspection module to a processing module configured to process a surface of the additively manufactured part responsive to the at least one part parameter;
- by the controller, modifying a processing parameter of a surface finishing process to be performed on the additively manufactured part by the processing module based on the information relating to the surface texture and/or roughness of the de-powdered additively manufactured part sent to the controller by the inspection module, and sending said modified processing parameter to the processing module;
- and
- by the processing module, smoothing a surface of the de-powdered additively manufactured part based on the modified processing parameter sent to the processing module by the controller so as to achieve a desired smoothness.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.