Method for melting powder, comprising heating of the area adjacent to the bath

• Main Authors: SAUSSEREAU GERARD, COLIN CHRISTOPHE, FROMENTIN JEAN-FRANCOIS
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 09.09.2015
• Subjects: AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING; CASTING; MAKING METALLIC POWDER; MANUFACTURE OF ARTICLES FROM METALLIC POWDER; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; POWDER METALLURGY; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; TRANSPORTING; WORKING METALLIC POWDER; WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL

The invention discloses a method for melting powder, comprising heating of the area adjacent to the bath. The method involves the following steps: (a) providing a material in the form of powder particles (60), (b) heating a first quantity of the powder to a temperature higher than the melting point TF of the layer using a high energy beam (95) and forming, at the surface of a support member (80) a first bath comprising this melted powder and a portion of the support member (80), (c) heating, likewise, a second quantity of the powder and forming, at the surface of the support member (80) a second bath comprising the melted powder downstream of the first bath, (d) repeating step (c) until a first layer (10) of the part is formed on the support member (80), (e) heating, likewise, an [n]th quantity of powder, and forming an [n]th bath comprising this melted powder above a portion of the first layer (10), (f) heating, likewise, an [n+1]th quantity of the powder and forming an [n+1]th bath comprising the melted powder downstream of the [n]th bath, (g) repeating step (f) in order to form a second layer (20) of the part above the first layer (10), (h) repeating steps (e) to (g) for each layer located above an already formed layer until the part has reached substantially the final form thereof. At least during the formation of each of the baths (102), back-up heating is used to heat the material located in an area adjacent to the bath (102), said area comprising at least one region selected between the region upstream (101) of the bath (102) and the region downstream (103) of the bath (102), to a temperature lower than the melting point TF.