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CN-119546401-B - Powder reservoir for additive manufacturing process

CN119546401BCN 119546401 BCN119546401 BCN 119546401BCN-119546401-B

Abstract

A powder reservoir for handling powder in an additive manufacturing process, comprising a powder container (100) with a powder inlet in an upper part of the powder container and a powder outlet in a lower part of the container, a set of sensors for determining a set of observable quantities, a first actuator (428,438,488,498,858) for driving a first mechanical function of the powder reservoir (1), the powder reservoir further comprising a second actuator (428,438,488,498,858) for driving a second mechanical function of the powder reservoir (1) and/or a multiport connector (500) configured to be connected with a corresponding connector of a powder handling station in an additive manufacturing process, providing additional safety and versatility.

Inventors

  • D. Kopschensky
  • M. Ovenberg
  • P. Neigendanke
  • R. REDLICH
  • S. Fester

Assignees

  • 尼康SLM方案股份公司

Dates

Publication Date
20260508
Application Date
20230623
Priority Date
20220712

Claims (20)

  1. 1. A powder reservoir (1), the powder reservoir (1) being for handling powder in an additive manufacturing process, wherein the powder reservoir (1) comprises at least: A powder container (100), the powder container (100) enclosing a container volume for storing the powder, -A container support structure (200), the container support structure (200) supporting the powder container (100), A set N of N sensors, the set N of N sensors is used to determine A set of observable quantities, wherein Is an integer greater than or equal to two, i.e., n e {2, 3, 4,..n max }, A set L of L actuators for driving at least one mechanical device of the powder reservoir (1), wherein L is a positive integer, Characterized in that the powder reservoir (1) further comprises at least: a transport device attached to the container support structure (200), A multi-port connector (500), the multi-port connector (500) being configured to connect with a corresponding connector of a powder processing station in an additive manufacturing process, wherein the multi-port connector (500) is a plug connector or a receptacle connector having a plurality of ports, and Each sensor of the subset M of M sensors of the set N of N sensors is connected to a separate port of the multi-port connector (500) via a separate measurement line, wherein 2≤m≤n, M, N being an integer, and/or At least each actuator of a subset K of K actuators of the set L of L actuators is connected to a separate contact and/or a separate port of the multiport connector (500) via a separate actuator control line, wherein 2K L, L and K are integers.
  2. 2. The powder reservoir (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises at least: -a powder inlet valve (485), the powder inlet valve (485) having a powder inlet valve inlet and a powder inlet valve outlet, wherein the powder inlet valve outlet is connected to a powder inlet (180) of the powder container (100) and the powder inlet valve inlet is connected to a powder inlet port (480) of the powder reservoir (1), and/or -A powder outlet valve (495), the powder outlet valve (495) having a powder outlet valve inlet and a powder outlet valve outlet, wherein the powder outlet valve inlet is connected to a powder outlet (190) of the powder container (100), and the powder outlet valve outlet is connected to a powder outlet port (490) of the powder reservoir (1).
  3. 3. Powder reservoir (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one funnel is in fluid communication with the powder inlet and/or powder outlet of the container.
  4. 4. Powder reservoir (1) according to claim 2, characterized in that at least one funnel is in fluid communication with the container volume via the powder inlet valve and/or the powder outlet valve with the respective valve in an open state.
  5. 5. The powder reservoir (1) according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that a support frame (300) rotatably supports the container support structure (200) by means of at least one rotation bearing having an axis of rotation.
  6. 6. The powder reservoir according to claim 5, characterized in that the powder reservoir comprises a locking mechanism, wherein the locking mechanism releasably prevents rotation of the container support structure (200) relative to the support frame (300).
  7. 7. A powder reservoir according to claim 5, wherein, -The container support structure (200) comprises a powder removal funnel (150), and -The powder removal funnel is movably attached to the container support structure (200), and -The movable attachment of the powder removal funnel (150) enables at least the movement of the powder removal funnel (150) relative to the container support structure (200) from a first position and/or first orientation into a second position and/or second orientation and from the second position and/or second orientation into the first position and/or first orientation.
  8. 8. The powder reservoir according to claim 5, characterized in that the powder container (100) has a powder container bottom (120) and the powder container bottom is supported by a support structure bottom (220) of the rotatable container support structure (200).
  9. 9. The powder reservoir according to claim 7, characterized in that the powder removal funnel (150) has a powder removal funnel powder inlet and the powder removal funnel powder inlet is in fluid communication with the container volume via an opening of the powder container.
  10. 10. The powder reservoir according to claim 9, characterized in that the powder removal funnel (150) covers the opening of the powder container.
  11. 11. The powder reservoir (1) according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the set N of N sensors comprises at least one of the following sensors: A vessel pressure sensor (440) for measuring a pressure in a volume of the vessel (100), A force sensor (106) for measuring a force exerted by the powder container (100) on the container support structure (200), A pressure sensor for measuring the pressure upstream of the powder inlet valve (485), A pressure sensor for measuring the pressure downstream of the powder outlet valve (495), A differential pressure sensor for measuring the pressure difference between the volume of the container (100) and the space upstream of the powder inlet valve (485), A differential pressure sensor for measuring the pressure difference between the volume of the container (100) and the space downstream of the powder outlet valve (495), A gas concentration sensor for determining at least the volume of the container (100) and/or the partial pressure and/or concentration of the gas component of the gas in the space upstream of the powder inlet valve (485) and/or in the space downstream of the powder outlet valve (495), -An upper powder level sensor located in an upper third of the powder container (100) and for determining whether the powder level in the powder container (100) is higher or lower than the position of the upper powder level sensor, and -A lower powder level sensor located at the lower third of the container and for determining whether the powder level in the powder container (100) is higher or lower than the position of the lower powder level sensor.
  12. 12. Powder reservoir (1) according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, Said powder reservoir (1) having an inert gas inlet connector, The powder reservoir (1) has a pressure relief valve (419) with a high pressure inlet and a low pressure outlet, The powder container (100) has an inert gas inlet (470), And, the inert gas inlet connector is in fluid communication with a high pressure inlet of the pressure relief valve (419), and a low pressure outlet of the pressure relief valve is in fluid communication with the inert gas inlet (470).
  13. 13. Powder reservoir (1) according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that an inert gas inlet valve (418) and/or a pressure reducing valve (419) are located in an inert gas line providing fluid communication between an inert gas inlet port (410) of the powder reservoir (1) and an inert gas inlet (470) of the container (100).
  14. 14. The powder reservoir (1) according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the powder reservoir comprises a control valve with control valve actuators and that the control valve actuators are members of a subset K of K actuators of a set L of actuators.
  15. 15. The powder reservoir (1) according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the powder reservoir (1) comprises a gas removal port (430) which is in fluid communication with the container volume at least via a gas removal control valve (435), and (I) The gas removal control valve (435) has a gas removal control valve actuator (438), and the gas removal control valve actuator (438) is in a set L of actuators Subsets of individual actuators And/or (Ii) The powder reservoir (1) comprises at least a pressure sensor configured to determine the gas pressure upstream or downstream of the gas removal control valve, and the pressure sensor configured to determine the gas pressure upstream or downstream of the gas removal control valve is a subset of the set of N sensors N Is a member of the group (a).
  16. 16. Powder reservoir (1) according to claim 15, characterized in that, (I) A gas removal port connection sensor is connected to a first end of a gas removal port connection sensor wire and a second end of the gas removal port connection sensor wire is connected to a port of the multi-port connector (500), and/or (Ii) The powder container (100) is located inside the container support structure (200) and the multi-port connector (500) is attached to the container support structure (200) with the ports of the multi-port connector (500) facing outwards, and/or (Iii) The powder reservoir (1) has a locking shaft (850) rotatably supported relative to the powder container (100), wherein the locking shaft (850) has a proximal end (851) and a distal end (852), and a locking member (853) is torque-transmissively coupled to the distal end (852) of the locking shaft (850), and the locking shaft (850) is driven by a locking shaft actuator (858).
  17. 17. The powder reservoir (1) of claim 16, wherein the lock-out shaft actuator (858) is a member of a subset K of the set L of sensors.
  18. 18. A powder treatment station for treating a powder provided to a powder reservoir (1) or provided from a powder reservoir (1) or stored in a powder reservoir (1), the powder reservoir (1) being a powder reservoir according to one of claims 1 to 17, characterized in that the powder treatment station has a mating multiport connector for connecting to a multiport connector of the powder reservoir (1).
  19. 19. The powder processing station according to claim 18, wherein the mating multiport connector has fewer ports than the multiport connector (500) of the powder reservoir (1) and/or not all ports of the mating multiport connector are connected to respective connection lines of a device.
  20. 20. Additive manufacturing apparatus, characterized in that it comprises a powder reservoir according to one of claims 1 to 17 and/or a powder processing station according to claim 18 or 19, wherein a controller of the additive manufacturing apparatus is connected to a first actuator and/or to a second actuator and/or to at least one sensor of a set N of sensors via a multiport connector (500).

Description

Powder reservoir for additive manufacturing process Technical Field The present invention relates to additive manufacturing according to a powder bed fusion process. In more detail, the present invention relates to a powder storage device, a so-called "powder reservoir", for use in a powder bed process. The powder reservoir comprises at least a powder container (simply "container") mounted in a support frame. Background The powder bed fusion process is commonly referred to as an additive manufacturing process. In this process, the powder layers are applied layer by layer on top of the previous layer to form a powder bed on the support plate. Before applying a new powder layer, a portion of the applied layer is subjected to radiation, which causes a portion of the powder particles of a layer to adhere to each other and to the previously applied layer by melting, sintering, melting and/or welding or any similar process. A powder bed fusion process may be considered to fuse a series of cross-sections of a workpiece to be manufactured on a corresponding series of powder layers, thereby forming the workpiece. This melting is obtained by scanning the cross section with a radiation beam. Herein we use the term "powder bed fusion process" as representative, which term includes all other processes that allow to selectively adhere parts of a powder bed by applying radiation to those parts of the powder bed to be adhered, whether or not adhesion is obtained by fusion, melting, welding, sintering, etc. The powder bed melting process is not limited to, but allows, unlike most other additive manufacturing processes, the manufacture of metal workpieces by selectively melting metal powder particles. Numerous review articles have been published about various aspects and variations of powder bed fusion processes. At least a portion of this summary is provided by Yi Zhang, yeon-Gil Jung and Jing Zhang in Multiscale Modeling of Additively Manufactured Metals: Application to Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process (Additive Manufacturing Materials and Technologies)（Elsevier, Amsterdam,2020,ISBN 978-0128196007）. The powder particles typically have a submicron diameter and must be stored under defined conditions, typically in an inert gas environment or in a vacuum environment, as oxidation of the powder results in lower workpiece quality. WO 2021/123782 A1 relates to a coupling system for an additive manufacturing process. The coupling system includes a conduit for transferring material between the powder reservoir and other components of the additive manufacturing process. The catheter includes a first portion and a second portion connected via an extendable intermediate portion. The actuator is operable to act on at least a portion of the catheter to extend or retract the intermediate portion to control the length of the catheter. This allows coupling and decoupling of the coupling system with and from the powder discharge opening of the powder reservoir. The coupling system includes a mechanical support having four tapered pins extending upwardly and configured to be received by mating through holes of a support structure of the powder reservoir. The authors of WO 2016/046539 A2 propose a powder reservoir for transporting metal powder from a manufacturing site to an Additive Manufacturing (AM) machine. The reservoir has a pressure vessel for containing the powder, a protective frame for providing physical protection to the pressure vessel, and is mounted on an industry standard pallet system to allow the use of forklifts. The pressure vessel includes an upper portion, a lower portion, and a removable cover. The upper part is a hollow cylinder and the lower part is a hollow truncated cone. At the bottom end of the truncated cone is an outlet tube with an outlet control valve. The outlet pipe has a flange for connecting the outlet pipe to the AM machine. On top of the hollow cylinder is a removable cap that allows the pressure vessel to be filled once the cap is removed. The cap is then sealingly bolted to the upper periphery of the hollow cylinder. The environment in the pressure vessel is monitored by data logging devices connected to a communication module with a GSM transceiver. The remote monitoring station polls the communication module, triggering transmission of the sensor readings through the communication module. These sensor readings are provided by pressure sensors, oxygen sensors, humidity sensors, strain gauges, accelerometers, temperature sensors, and GPS position sensors. Disclosure of Invention The problem underlying the present invention is to provide an improved powder reservoir for storing and transporting powder for use in a powder bed fusion process. The invention is based on a series of observations. First, it is noted that many different powder reservoirs are used in an additive manufacturing factory to process powder at different manufacturing stages, only one of which is a fusion process. For example, once the