Flowability of am powders

Abstract

A powder bed fusion additive manufacturing system includes a build powder bed positioned on a build plate in a build chamber, an energy source scanning system configured to scan an energy source across a top layer of the build powder bed to consolidate selected portions of the top layer to build a single layer of a desired part, a build piston configured to adjust the height of the build plate after the layer of the desired part is built, and a fresh build powder distributor configured to distribute a layer fresh build powder over a build powder bed such that the layer of fresh build powder is level and smooth. The fresh build powder distributor comprises a distributor excitation device configured to cause the fresh build powder distributor to vibrate at a predetermined vibrational frequency while distributing the layer of fresh build powder over the build powder bed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.