METHODS AND APPARATUS TO OPTIMIZE STITCH QUALITY IN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

• Main Authors: Buckley, Donovan, Umang, Nitish, Dodds, Nicholas, Graham, Michael E
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 26.05.2022
• Subjects: ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY; ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, i.e. MANUFACTURING OFTHREE-DIMENSIONAL [3-D] OBJECTS BY ADDITIVE DEPOSITION, ADDITIVEAGGLOMERATION OR ADDITIVE LAYERING, e.g. BY 3-D PRINTING,STEREOLITHOGRAPHY OR SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING; AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; TRANSPORTING; WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL

Methods and apparatus to optimize stitch quality in additive manufacturing are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory to store instructions, and processor circuitry to execute the instructions to identify at least one keep-out zone of an object build area where stitching is to be reduced during additive manufacturing, determine a first set of stitch coordinates corresponding to a stitching region of the object, the stitching region including a stitch boundary of the stitching region, and generate a second set of stitch coordinates reducing stitching in the at least one keep-out zone of the object build area, the second set of stitch coordinates determined by using (1) a local search algorithm and/or (2) a random coordinate modification algorithm, the second set of stitch coordinates used to reduce the stitch length or support load balancing.