Powder bed fusion apparatus and methods
AssigneeRenishaw PLC
InventorsDavid Roberts MCMURTRY, Geoffrey MCFARLAND, Kenneth Cheng-Hoe NAI
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A powder bed fusion apparatus and method includes a build platform for supporting a powder bed onto which layers of a powder can be deposited, a scanner for scanning an energy beam over each layer to fuse selected regions of the powder bed and a gas flow circuit for passing a flow of gas over the powder bed. The gas flow circuit includes a filter assembly including a filter housing through which the gas flows, the filter housing containing a granulate, preferably powder, filter medium for filtering particles from the gas flow. The powder filter medium may correspond to powder used to form the powder bed such as being of the same material as the powder used to form the powder bed.
Claims15
A powder bed fusion apparatus comprising;
- a build platform for supporting a powder bed onto which layers of a powder can be deposited, a scanner for scanning an energy beam over each layer to fuse selected regions of the powder bed and a gas flow circuit for passing a flow of gas over the powder bed, the gas flow circuit comprising a filter assembly comprising a filter housing through which the gas flows, the filter housing containing a powder filter medium for filtering particles from the gas flow.
A powder bed fusion method comprising:
- forming layers of a powder bed. scanning an energy beam over each layer to fuse selected regions of the powder bed to build an object, passing a flow of gas over the powder bed and filtering particles from the gas flow using a powder filter medium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.