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US 2019/0337283 A1Published application
Methods and Keyway Supports for Additive Manufacturing
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsZachary David Fieldman, Daniel Joerger, Neal Dunham
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Abstract
The present disclosure generally relates to methods for additive manufacturing (AM) that utilize support structure in the process of building objects that may be removed by rotating the support structure to a second orientation before removal, as well as novel support structures to be used within these AM processes. The support structures are fabricated in a first orientation and then rotated to the second orientation. The support structures are removed by passing through an outlet of the object.
Claims19
A method for fabricating an object, comprising:
- (a) irradiating a layer of powder in a powder bed to form a fused region;
- (b) providing a subsequent layer of powder over the powder bed by passing a recoater arm over the powder bed from a first side of the powder bed;
- (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) until the object and at least one support structure is formed in the powder bed, wherein the at least one support structure and the object have a first orientation, wherein the object comprises a divergent surface and an outlet, and wherein the support structure conforms to and aligns with the divergent surface when the support structure is in the first orientation;
- (d) rotating the support structure to a second orientation;
- and
- (e) removing the support structure from the object by passing the support structure through the outlet of the object.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.