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US 2019/0337229 A1Published application
Fixture and method of cleaning additive manufacturing machine components
AssigneeHamilton Sundstrand Corporation
InventorsAlexander Madinger, Diana Giulietti
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of cleaning a recoater of an additive manufacturing machine includes installing a cleaning fixture into the additive manufacturing machine, the cleaning fixture including one or more cleaning elements, advancing the recoater into contact with the one or more cleaning elements, and rotating the recoater about a recoater axis thus dislodging material from a recoater outer surface due to frictional contact with the one or more cleaning elements.
Claims15
A method of cleaning a recoater of an additive manufacturing machine, comprising:
- installing a cleaning fixture into the additive manufacturing machine, the cleaning fixture including one or more cleaning elements;
- advancing the recoater into contact with the one or more cleaning elements;
- and
- rotating the recoater about a recoater axis thus dislodging material from a recoater outer surface due to frictional contact with the one or more cleaning elements.
1 more element
An additive manufacturing machine comprising:
- a build plate;
- a powder source configured to selectably distribute a powdered material at the build plate for manufacturing;
- a recoater configured to advance over the item being manufactured and compress the distributed powder material, wherein the recoater is configured to advance from a home position to contact with the item being manufactured and return to the home position, the recoater further configured to rotate about a recoater axis;
- and
- a cleaning fixture for the recoater installable to the build plate, the build plate including one or more cleaning elements configured to remove material from an outer surface of the recoater as the recoater rotates about the recoater axis via frictional contact between the recoater and the one or more cleaning elements.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.