Ultraviolet radiation sensing and beam control in electron beam additive manufacturing
AssigneeDivergent Technologies, Inc.
InventorsEric Yang, Andrius Juozas Raulinaitis, Michael James Hoganson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In various aspects, an apparatus for an electron-beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF) printer includes a radiation collector configured to collect radiation in an ultraviolet (UV) spectrum at a powder bed surface within a vacuum chamber during an electron beam scanning cycle of EB-PBF operation, an optical fiber configured to be transparent to the radiation in the UV spectrum and configured to receive the radiation at the powder bed surface via the radiation collector, and a processor configured to receive one or more extracted wavelengths of radiation in the UV spectrum based on the radiation carried on the optical fiber.
Claims38
An apparatus for an electron-beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF) printer, comprising:
- a radiation collector configured to collect ultraviolet (UV) radiation from a powder bed surface within a vacuum chamber during an electron beam scanning cycle of EB-PBF operation;
- and
- a processor configured to determine information based on the UV radiation.
A PBF apparatus, comprising:
- an electron beam source configured to selectively fuse at least one layer of powder of a powder bed in a vacuum chamber;
- and
- an optical assembly within the vacuum chamber and including:
- a radiation collector configured to collect ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the at least one layer of powder when the electron beam source selectively fuses the at least one layer of powder,
- a UV-transparent optical fiber configured to receive the UV radiation from the radiation collector, and
- at least one interface configured to provide the UV radiation to a processor of the PBF apparatus.
A method for an electron-beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF) printer, comprising:
- collecting, by a radiation collector, ultraviolet (UV) radiation from a powder bed surface within a vacuum chamber during an electron beam scanning cycle of EB-PBF operation;
- and
- determining, by a processor, information based on the UV radiation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.