An additive manufacturing apparatus manufactures a shaped object by stacking layers in each of which unit beads that are solidified products of a molten material are laid side by side. The additive manufacturing apparatus includes a material supply unit that supplies a wire as the material to a workpiece, an irradiation unit that emits a laser beam for melting the material supplied, and a controller device that controls the material supply unit and the irradiation unit to form the unit beads. In the formation of unit beads brought into contact with each other to form the layer, the controller device performs control such that a formed unit bead is flattened by irradiation with the beam, and a unit bead is formed in contact with the unit bead that has been flattened.

A fill tool system that fills, seals, and inspects a heat pipe array, which includes one or more heat pipes with heat pipe working fluid.

A build system is provided with: a build apparatus that performs a build process for forming a build object by supplying build materials to an irradiation area of an energy beam from a supply system while irradiating a target object with the energy beam from an irradiation system; and a change apparatus that is configured to change a relative position between the energy beam and the target object, wherein the build system differentiates a condition of the build process that is performed at a first area of the target object and a condition of the build process that is performed at a second area of the target object.

A method of additive manufacture is disclosed. The method may include creating, by a 3D printer contained within an enclosure, a part having a weight greater than or equal to 2,000 kilograms. A gas management system may maintain gaseous oxygen within the enclosure atmospheric level. In some embodiments, a wheeled vehicle may transport the part from inside the enclosure, through an airlock, as the airlock operates to buffer between a gaseous environment within the enclosure and a gaseous environment outside the enclosure, and to a location exterior to both the enclosure and the airlock.

This specification describes systems, methods, and architectures related to generating a plasma shield for laser operations. An example system for generating a plasma shield includes a laser head for directing a laser beam towards a target area on a workpiece. The path of the laser beam from the laser head to the target area on the workpiece is substantially surrounded by a plasma shield, which may form a gas-impermeable barrier. The plasma shield is configured to prevent the ingress of atmospheric or environmental gases, for example oxygen, into an area which would allow the gas to be in contact with the area of the workpiece being interacted with by a laser beam. The shape or location of the plasma shield may be controlled or altered using a magnetic field.

A method and an apparatus for collecting powder samples in real-time in powder bed fusion additive manufacturing may involves an ingester system for in-process collection and characterizations of powder samples. The collection may be performed periodically and uses the results of characterizations for adjustments in the powder bed fusion process. The ingester system of the present disclosure is capable of packaging powder samples collected in real-time into storage containers serving a multitude purposes of audit, process adjustments or actions.

An article includes a ceramic material and features a machined surface that is characteristic of cold ablation laser machining, and the machined surface exhibits no visible oxidation. A laser machining apparatus and technique is based on cold-ablation, but is modified or augmented with an inert assist gas, to minimize deleterious surface modifications and mitigate the oxide formation associated with laser machining.

A method for bonding two elements, the method including receiving first and second elements, the first element being a composite material; applying a laser-based treatment to a surface of the first element to obtain a treated surface; patterning the treated surface to have plural trenches; applying an adhesive to one of the first and second elements; and joining the first element to the second element so that the adhesive is between the first and second elements.

A method for welding between two metallic plates, including: (a) fitting a solid plate without openings, configured to be transparent at at least one emission wavelength of a laser beam (F) emitted by a laser (L), between the laser (L) and at least one contact zone between the metallic plates to be welded; (a1) inerting of the contact zone via a netural gas, where the neutral gas circulates in channels delimited by the contact zone between the metallic plates and by the solid plate; (a2) exerting pressure on the two metallic plates to apply them against one another in the contact zone to be welded, where the application pressure is exerted by the solid plate directly in contact with one of the two metallic plates to be welded; and (b) emission of a laser beam, through the solid plate, to perform welding of the metallic plates in the contact zone.

Systems and methods in which dot-like portions of a material (e.g., a viscous material such as a solder paste) are printed or otherwise transferred onto an electronic component at a first printing unit, and the electronic component is subsequently placed onto a substrate with the portions of viscous material between the electronic component and the substrate. Optionally, a printing unit which prints the dots of material onto the electronic component includes a coating system that creates a uniform layer of the material on a donor substrate, and the material is transferred in the individual dot-like portions from the donor substrate onto the electronic component by the printing unit. The system may also include imaging units to aid in the overall process.