Additive manufacturing devices and methods for the same are provided. The additive manufacturing device may include a stage configured to support a substrate, a printhead disposed above the stage, and a targeted heating system disposed proximal the printhead. The printhead may be configured to heat a build material to a molten build material and deposit the molten build material on the substrate in the form of droplets to fabricate the article. The targeted heating system may be configured to control a temperature or temperature gradient of the droplets in a flight path interposed between the printhead and the substrate.

Additive manufacturing devices and methods for the same are provided. The additive manufacturing device may include a stage configured to support a substrate, a printhead disposed above the stage, and a targeted heating system disposed proximal the printhead. The printhead may be configured to heat a build material to a molten build material and deposit the molten build material on the substrate in the form of droplets to fabricate the article. The targeted heating system may be configured to control a temperature or temperature gradient of the droplets deposited on the substrate, an area proximal the substrate, or combinations thereof.

A method for heating a base material in additive manufacturing includes a) providing an energy beam for the heating of the base material, wherein the base material is arranged to at least partly form a manufacturing plane, and b) irradiating the manufacturing plane for the heating with the energy beam under scaled irradiation parameters, wherein the scaled irradiation parameters are derived in that irradiation parameters for fusing the base material are scaled by a scaling factor, and wherein the scaling factor includes a quotient of a heating beam diameter and a fusion beam diameter.

A method (1000) of additively manufacturing an object (200) from a powder material (202) comprises discharging the powder material (202) from a powder-deposition opening (126) in a hollow body (122) of a powder-supply arm (108) while rotating the powder-supply arm (108) and an energy-supply arm (112) about a vertical axis A1. Method (1000) also comprises, while rotating the powder-supply arm (108) and the energy-supply arm (112) about the vertical axis A1, distributing the powder material (202) within a powder-bed volume (204) using a powder-distribution blade (128) that is coupled to the hollow body (122) and extends along the powder-deposition opening (126). The method (1000) further comprises, while rotating the powder-supply arm (108) and the energy-supply arm (112) about vertical axis A1, consolidating at least a portion of the powder material (202) in the powder-bed volume (204) using the energy emitters (114), coupled to the energy-supply arm (112).

Additive manufacturing systems and methods utilizing an optical light valve configured to spatially modulate the intensity of a laser beam, in conjunction with a writing and erasing sub-system configured to repeatedly write and erase patterns in the optical light valve to repeatedly vary the spatial modulation of the laser beam. In some implementations, the systems and methods may also employ additional laser beams or other energy sources that are not spatially modulated by the optical light valve. In some implementations, the systems and methods may employ additional laser beams or other energy sources configured to reduce surface roughness of the powder or other material being used for additive manufacturing.

Additive manufacturing systems and methods utilizing an optical light valve configured to spatially modulate the intensity of a laser beam, in conjunction with a writing and erasing sub-system configured to repeatedly write and erase patterns in the optical light valve to repeatedly vary the spatial modulation of the laser beam. In some implementations, the systems and methods may also employ additional laser beams or other energy sources that are not spatially modulated by the optical light valve. In some implementations, the systems and methods may employ additional laser beams or other energy sources configured to reduce surface roughness of the powder or other material being used for additive manufacturing.

A system and method of additive manufacturing is disclosed herein which when run or performed form a product with a powder-based additive manufacturing device by adding sequential layers of material on top of one another. As each sequential layer of material is added, the system and method can include monitoring the sequential layer with a defect analysis subsystem to detect whether the sequential layer has any defects. For a detected defect, it can be determined whether defect correction is required. For a required defect correction, one or more correction parameters for the required defect correction can be identified; and a correction command including the one or more correction parameters can be sent to the additive manufacturing device, the correction command causing the additive manufacturing device to help correct the detected defect in the sequential layer according to the correction parameters prior to moving on to a next sequential layer.

A system and method of additive manufacturing is disclosed herein which when run or performed form a product with a powder-based additive manufacturing device by adding sequential layers of material on top of one another. As each sequential layer of material is added, the system and method can include monitoring the sequential layer with a defect analysis subsystem to detect whether the sequential layer has any defects. For a detected defect, it can be determined whether defect correction is required. For a required defect correction, one or more correction parameters for the required defect correction can be identified; and a correction command including the one or more correction parameters can be sent to the additive manufacturing device, the correction command causing the additive manufacturing device to help correct the detected defect in the sequential layer according to the correction parameters prior to moving on to a next sequential layer.

An implantable object (1000′) and a method (100) of fabricating an implantable object is disclosed. The method (100) comprises melting a powder (210) comprising at least nickel and titanium with an energy source (220) and iteratively forming a plurality of stacked metallic layers (330) from the melted powder using an additive manufacturing technique. The implantable object is biased to expand from a first configuration (501) to a second configuration (502) when at or above a transformation temperature.

The present invention provides a system capable of estimating a molding state in a manufacturing process of the lamination molded object. According to the present invention, provided is a system for estimating a molding state in a manufacturing process of the lamination molded object including an image acquisition unit and an analysis unit. The lamination molded object is manufactured by repeating a material layer forming step of forming a material layer by supplying material powder onto a molding region and a solidified layer forming step of forming a solidified layer by irradiating the material layer with a laser beam. The image acquisition unit is configured to acquire image data of a spatter generated around a molten pool formed by irradiation with the laser beam. The analysis unit is configured to analyze the image data to estimate a parameter representing the molding state.