Distortion mitigation in directed energy deposition
AssigneeNorsk Titanium AS
InventorPedro Almeida
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Provided are a mount system and systems and methods using the mount system for manufacturing objects, especially titanium and titanium alloy objects, by directed energy deposition. The methods include thermally pre-bending the substrate onto which the object is to be manufactured to form a pre-bent substrate, attaching the pre-bent substrate to a jig using the mount system as an underlying support, pre-heating the substrate, and forming the object on the pre-heated, pre-bent substrate using a directed energy deposition technique.
Claims20
A mount system, comprising:
- a first side configured to interface with a welding jig;
- and
- a second side defining a curved profile and configured to interface with a substrate, the second side comprising:
- a substrate interface area sized to accommodate a surface of the substrate with which the second side is configured to interface, and
- a substrate contact area over which the mount system is configured to physically contact the substrate when the second side interfaces with the substrate,
- wherein the substrate contact area comprises 0.1 to 20 percent of the substrate interface area.
A pin support system comprising:
- one or more pins in a reconfigurable arrangement on a welding jig,
- wherein the one or more pins are arranged to have varying substrate support heights and define a curved profile.
A directed energy deposition method for producing a metal workpiece, comprising:
- pre-bending a substrate of a metal material with thermal energy by forming a plurality of melting tracks on a first surface of the substrate using a melting tool to produce a pre-bent substrate;
- using the mount system as an underlying support structure to support the pre-bent substrate, and securing the pre-bent substrate and the mount system or pin support system supporting the pre-bent substrate to a jig using a plurality of clamps;
- and
- forming the metal workpiece on a second surface of the substrate by an additive manufacturing process that comprises melting a metal feedstock to deposit a layer of molten metal on the second surface of the substrate to form a base material and deposits subsequent layers of molten metal on the base material to form the workpiece,
- wherein the second surface of the substrate is opposite the first surface of the substrate.
A system for directed energy deposition, comprising:
- a jig for securing a pre-bent substrate;
- a mount system to be positioned between the jig and when the pre-bent substrate is secured to the jig;
- clamps for securing the pre-bent substrate to the jig;
- one or more melting tools comprising a DED thermal source to melt a source of metal into metallic molten material that is deposited on a surface of a base material;
- a gas jet device to direct a cooling gas to impinge upon the as-solidified material adjacent to a liquid-solid boundary of the liquid molten pool to influence temperature gradients;
- a supply of the cooling gas;
- and
- an actuator for positioning and moving the base material relative to the melting tool and the gas jet device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.