Systems and methods for creating compensated digital representations for use in additive manufacturing processes

A system for fabricating a component, said system comprising:

• an additive manufacturing device configured to fabricate a first component by sequentially forming a plurality of superposed layers based upon a nominal digital representation of a second component, wherein the nominal digital representation comprises a plurality of nominal digital two-dimensional cross-sections, each nominal digital two-dimensional cross-section corresponding to a layer of the first component;
• and
• a computing device coupled to said additive manufacturing device, said computing device comprising a memory device configured to store the nominal digital representation of the second component, said computing device further comprising a processor, wherein for an ith layer of the first component said processor is configured to:
• (a) generate a cumulative compensation transformation associated with the ith layer, wherein for an initial layer of the first component, said processor is configured to generate a cumulative compensation transformation equal to an identity transformation, and wherein for a layer of the first component other than the initial layer, said processor is configured to generate a cumulative compensation transformation for the ith layer by applying a local compensation transformation corresponding to the (i−1)th layer to a cumulative compensation transformation associated with the (i−1)th layer;
• (b) apply the cumulative compensation transformation associated with the ith layer to the nominal digital two-dimensional cross-section corresponding to the ith layer to create an intermediate digital two-dimensional cross-section corresponding to the ith layer;
• (c) determine a local compensation transformation for the ith layer, wherein the local compensation transformation for the ith layer of the first component is based upon a difference between a geometric characteristic of the ith layer and a corresponding geometric characteristic of the intermediate digital two-dimensional cross-section corresponding to the ith layer;
• (d) apply the local compensation transformation for the ith layer to the intermediate digital two-dimensional cross-section corresponding to the ith layer to create a compensated digital two-dimensional cross-section corresponding to the ith layer;
• and
• (e) perform (a) through (d) for at least one other layer of the first component;
• and
• wherein said additive manufacturing device is further configured to fabricate a second component based upon the compensated digital two-dimensional cross-sections.