ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING APPARATUS AND PROCESS

• Main Author: PRICE, Howard, James
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 15.02.2018
• 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; CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; TRANSPORTING; WELDING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM; WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL

Additive manufacturing apparatus for fabricating a three-dimensional object, the apparatus comprising: means for directing energy onto a growth surface of a workpiece to form thereon a liquid melt-pool; means for feeding additional material into the melt-pool so as to cause the additional material to become incorporated into the liquid of the melt-pool; and means for cryogenically cooling the liquid melt-pool, thereby to achieve a cooling rate of the liquid melt pool of at least 100°C per second and to cause the liquid melt-pool to solidify. L'invention porte sur un appareil de fabrication additive qui permet de fabriquer un objet tridimensionnel et qui comprend : un moyen pour diriger de l'énergie sur une surface de croissance d'une pièce à travailler afin de former sur celle-ci un bain de fusion liquide ; un moyen pour fournir du matériau supplémentaire dans le bain de fusion de façon à provoquer l'incorporation du matériau supplémentaire dans le liquide du bain de fusion ; un moyen pour refroidir de manière cryogénique le bain de fusion liquide, ce qui permet d'obtenir une vitesse de refroidissement du bain de fusion liquide d'au moins 100 °C par seconde et de provoquer la solidification du bain de fusion liquide.