System and method for additive metal casting

A hybrid casting system for processing an input part to receive a final cast having an additive cast portion, the system comprising a mold construction assembly and a metal processing assembly operable in synchrony to produce the additive cast portion by forming a stack of production layers having mold regions and object regions, the mold regions constituting a mold-in-progress and the object regions constituting a casting-in-progress held within in the mold-in-progress,

• wherein the metal processing assembly comprises a surface melter for melting a first volume of previously-solidified metal in the casting-in-progress;
• a metal depositor for dropping a second volume of molten metal into said first volume;
• a powder introduction unit for selectively delivering an allocated amount of at least one cast-property modifying powder, wherein said first volume and said second volume accumulate into a melt zone of at least a predetermined minimum volume of molten material required for cast-property modification processes,
• wherein said mold construction assembly is further operable to construct an interfacing mold region around at least a portion of the input part thereby defining an interfacing region, and the metal processing assembly is further operable for heating the interfacing region and generating a melt zone in the interfacing region, and optionally providing at least one cast property modifying powder to the interfacing region, and
• wherein said stack of production layers is fabricated onto said interfacing region.

A hybrid casting system for receiving an input cast and adding metal to the input cast by producing, on a build area on the input cast, multiple production layers having mold regions and object regions defined by the mold regions, one current production layer after the other, the system comprising:

• a movable mold constructor operative to construct a mold region for a current production layer;
• a movable molten metal depositor operative to deposit molten metal at a predetermined deposition temperature in multiple working areas at the object region of the current production layer;
• one or more surface heater operative for heating the multiple working areas;
• one or more powder feeder operative to provide inoculant and/or additive powder to the working areas;
• at least one motion unit coupled to the movable build table, the movable mold constructor, movable molten metal depositor, the at least one heater and the at least one or more powder feeder;
• and
• a controller operative to iteratively control at least the build table, mold constructor, molten metal depositor, at least one heater, the at least one powder feeder, and the at least one motion unit to produce the metal object according to a predetermined build plan, wherein the controller is operative to heating the multiple working areas further comprises generating a melt zone in working areas, to construct support for an interfacing mold region in the build area and to selectively provide inoculant and/or additive powder to the interfacing object region.