Fabrication of composite parts by additive manufacturing and microstructure topology customization
AssigneeSaudi Arabian Oil Company
InventorThibault Villette
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for optimizing an additive manufacturing process in which a reinforcement material is randomly introduced to a fabrication bed. An image of the fabrication bed is captured. The image is analyzed by code in a computer to identify the actual arrangement of the randomly deposited reinforcement material relative to the object being manufactured. Based on the image data showing the reinforcement material, a toolpath is dynamically determined that incorporates the random reinforcement material. Accordingly, the toolpath incorporates the reinforcement material into the structure of the object, which can result in a reduction of the total amount of raw material is fused to create the object being manufactured.
Claims20
A method for manufacturing an object using an additive manufacturing process, comprising the steps of:
- providing loose raw material to a fabrication bed;
- providing loose reinforcement material to the fabrication bed;
- capturing an image of the raw material and the reinforcement material;
- processing the image to identify an arrangement of the reinforcement material in the fabrication bed;
- dynamically determining a toolpath based upon the arrangement of the identified reinforcement material;
- and
- operating a tool to activate the raw material along the determined toolpath in a layer of the object being manufactured.
A system for manufacturing an object from a raw material and a reinforcement material using an additive manufacturing process, comprising:
- a fabrication chamber;
- a raw material reservoir configured to dispense the raw material;
- a reinforcement material reservoir configured to dispense the reinforcement material;
- a fabrication bed supported by fabrication chamber, the fabrication bed having a portion of the raw material depositable thereon from the raw material reservoir as a layer and a portion of the reinforcement material depositable thereon as part of the layer;
- a camera configured to capture an image of the fabrication bed;
- a computer having a processor and software executable by the processor, wherein the computer is configured to process the image to identify the reinforcement material within the layer of the fabrication bed, the computer further being configured to dynamically determine a toolpath based on an arrangement of the identified reinforcement material in the layer;
- a tool configured to activate the raw material of the fabrication bed, wherein the tool can be controlled to operate along the determined toolpath.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.