US-12619806-B2 - Optimization system

US12619806B2US 12619806 B2US12619806 B2US 12619806B2US-12619806-B2

Abstract

A device that enables the production of a part by additive manufacturing and a digital model that enables part analysis and/or design to be made in a virtual environment and creates a three-dimensional virtual part model are disclosed. A processor unit enables the designing of the digital model. Multiple unit design cells are used as building blocks to create the digital model that are virtually designed in the processor unit and that each have a three-dimensional platonic geometric shape. At least one database is provided in which analysis and/or design data are stored.

Inventors

Hakan Yavas
Ahmet Alptug TANRIKULU
Akin Dagkolu
Istemihan GOKDAG

Assignees

TUSAS—TURK HAVACILIK VE UZAY SANAYII ANONIM SIRKETI

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20210329
Priority Date: 20200522

Claims (9)

1 . An optimization system ( 1 ) comprising a device ( 2 ) that enables the production of parts (p) by additive manufacturing, a digital model ( 3 ) that enables part (p) analysis and/or design to be made in a virtual environment and creates a three-dimensional virtual part (p) model, a processor unit ( 4 ) that enables the designing of the digital model ( 3 ), wherein the device ( 2 ) performs part (p) production under the control of the processor unit ( 4 ), multiple unit design cells ( 5 ) which are used as building blocks to create the digital model ( 3 ) are virtually designed in the processor unit ( 4 ), and each have a three-dimensional platonic geometric shape, at least one database ( 6 ) in which analysis and/or design data are stored, said database ( 6 ) comprises test data obtained by subjecting multiple parts (p) produced in the device ( 2 ) to chemical, physical, geometric and mechanical tests, and the processor unit ( 4 ) that enables the creation of the digital model ( 3 ) by arranging the unit design cells ( 5 ) using the test data from the database ( 6 ), wherein said processor unit ( 4 ) determines the platonic geometric shape of the unit design cell ( 5 ) depending on the data it retrieves from the database ( 6 ).
2 . The optimization system ( 1 ) according to claim 1 above, characterized by the processor unit ( 4 ) that enables the determination of the chemical and/or physical tests to be applied to the part (p).
3 . The optimization system ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , characterized by the processor unit ( 4 ) that identifies the difference between the part's (p) analysis results using the physical and chemical test data applied to the user-produced part (p) and depending on the defined differences, that enables the creation of the digital model ( 3 ) by machine learning method.
4 . The optimization system ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , characterized by the processor unit ( 4 ) that compares the analysis data of each unit design cell ( 5 ) to the chemical and/or physical test data of the part (p) in the database ( 6 ) and enables the creation of the digital model ( 3 ) by selecting and arranging the unit design cell ( 5 ) by machine learning method.
5 . The optimization system ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , characterized by the processor unit ( 4 ) that enables the digital model ( 3 ) to be user-designed for part (p) designing and is programmable for the design and analysis of the digital model ( 3 ).
6 . The optimization system ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , characterized by the unit design cell ( 5 ) that has cubic, tetrahedral, octahedral, dodecahedral or icosahedron three-dimensional geometric shape.
7 . The optimization system ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , characterized by the processor unit ( 4 ) that determines the mechanical and thermal stresses to be applied to the digital model ( 3 ) designed by numerical analysis, applies them to the digital model ( 3 ) and by removing those regions from the digital model ( 3 ) where the stress does not reach the previously user-determined threshold value according to the stress and pressure distribution obtained as a result of the analysis performed on the digital model ( 3 ), makes the structure of the part (p) to be produced more lightweight.
8 . The optimization system ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , characterized by the processor unit ( 4 ) that determines at least one of the production parameters such as powder melting parameters, laser directing angle, applied laser power, electron gun power or beam directions used by the device ( 2 ) in part (p) production.
9 . The optimization system ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , characterized by the processor unit ( 4 ) located on the device ( 2 ).

Description

This invention relates to an optimization system developed to make design-improvements in designing a digital model to be produced using additive manufacturing. With the development of technology, the use of complex-shaped parts has become widespread, particularly in the aviation industry. In order to produce such parts, additive manufacturing technologies have been developed, with ongoing process improvement studies, that enable the production of three-dimensional parts by depositing metal, ceramic and polymer material powders or filaments layer-by-layer on top of each other and processing and subjecting the same to heat treatment using a printer head. Nowadays, digital model designs and analysis are generally shaped according to the capabilities of traditional part production methods such as machining technologies. For this reason, the digital model designing of parts to be produced can be performed in a limited design space and in a small number of processing aspects. However, together with the development of additive manufacturing technologies, the design space has expanded and it has become possible to produce geometries such as cage structures and internally-channeled designs that cannot be produced using machining technologies. In this way, it has become possible to reach lightweight values that are almost impossible to reach with traditional methods, as well as to control the local mechanical properties. However, there is a need for methods and/or methodologies for the integration of said parts with complex geometries into digital model geometries calculated and developed for traditional production technologies. Studies on digital model designing on additive manufacturing production have been continuing. In the European patent application document EP3051445A1, which forms part of the state of the art, it is mentioned on computer-generated digital modeling for parts to be produced by additive manufacturing and on the ability of carrying out structural analysis of these models using finite element analysis. In the aforementioned method, the use of finite element analysis as an intermediate step and thus the production of three-dimensional digital models through accurate calculations are described. The United States patent application document US20160207111A1, which forms part of the state of the art, relates to a method comprising the addition of material on material so that parts or objects to be produced by additive manufacturing acquire their required physical properties during their production. The objects there consist of geometric shapes such as an uncut octahedron, a dodecahedron, an icosahedron, an icosidodecahedron. In the U.S. patent Ser. No. 10/303,157B2, which forms part of the state of the art, a method is described wherein the parts that can be produced by additive manufacturing can be sliced by their x, y and z planes and their three-dimensional digital models can be created on a computer in a virtual manner. In the European patent application document EP3045300A1, which forms part of the state of the art, it is described that hollow polyhedron geometries can be used as unit geometries in designing. The use of unit design cells with platonic geometric shapes during the digital model designing of a part to be produced by additive manufacturing and the conversion of the physical, chemical, geometric and mechanical analysis of these unit design cells from a micro level to a macro level and then transformation into a global analysis are known from the prior art. However, this process is done by the user for each production. This, in turn, leads to a loss of time and work. By virtue of the optimization system developed with this invention, costs and time will be saved by enabling the integration of finite element analysis programs which have been applied to traditional methods into additive manufacturing applications by virtue of minimizing the geometric, physical, mechanical and chemical differences between a part produced by additive manufacturing and its digital model designed on a drawing program. Another object of the invention is to minimize the physical geometric and mechanical differences between a product and its designed form that may occur due to shifts and errors caused by the production process when internally-channeled shapes and complex-geometry shapes digitally modeled in the design phase are easily transferred to the product. Another object of the invention is to enable the traditional modeling methods to be effectively applied also to parts that are to be produced by additive manufacturing and to make this process a systematic one. Another object of the invention is to enable local improvements to be made during the designing and digital modeling of an internally-channeled part with a complex geometry, which is to be produced by additive manufacturing, and to enable the production thereof in a more lightweight structure. The optimization system realized to achieve the objec