Filter assembly
AssigneeMtt Technologies Limited
InventorsSimon Peter Scott, Christopher Sutcliffe
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A filter assembly for an additive manufacturing apparatus has a housing defining a gas inlet and a gas outlet. A filter element is located within the housing between the gas inlet and the gas outlet. The assembly includes valves that can be actuated to seal the gas inlet and the gas outlet. Additionally the assembly has a fluid inlet for allowing ingress of a fluid into the housing. The assembly allows a filter element, which may contain volatile particles, to be changed safely. By sealing the gas inlet and outlet and flooding the housing with a suitable fluid, volatile particles captured by the filter can be neutralised.
Claims19
An additive manufacturing apparatus comprising:
- a build chamber;
- a module for providing a focused energy beam for consolidating layer-by-layer powder material in the build chamber to build an article;
- a gas flow circuit for passing a flow of gas through the build chamber during the manufacturing process;
- and
- a filter assembly;
- the filter assembly comprising:
- a filter housing having a gas inlet and a gas outlet for permitting gas flow in one direction from said inlet to said outlet, said housing being detachably coupled to the gas flow circuit such that the filter housing is removably-mountable to the additive manufacturing apparatus and a filter element located within the filter housing between the gas inlet and the gas outlet to, in use, filter volatile and/or explosive particles from the gas of the gas flow circuit;
- the filter housing further comprising:
- a first valve actuatable to seal the gas inlet and a second valve actuatable to seal the gas outlet, the filter housing arranged for allowing flow of a liquid through the filter housing in a direction opposite to said one direction for neutralizing the volatile and/or explosive particles trapped by the filter element and to remove the filter element.
A method of changing a particle filter element located within a filter housing mounted on an additive manufacturing apparatus,
- the additive manufacturing apparatus comprising:
- a build chamber;
- a module for providing a focussed energy beam for consolidating layer-by-layer powder material in the build chamber to build an article;
- a gas flow circuit for passing a flow of gas through the build chamber during the manufacturing process;
- the filter housing having a gas inlet and a gas outlet detachably couplable to the gas flow circuit such that, in use, the filter element filters volatile and/or explosive particles from the gas of the gas flow circuit,
- the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) closing a valve to seal the gas inlet to the filter housing and closing a valve to seal the gas outlet from the filter housing,
- (b) removing the filter housing from the additive manufacturing apparatus, and
- (c) flooding the filter housing with a liquid,
- in which steps (b) and (c) can be performed in any order.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.