A method for producing a support structure in the additive manufacturing of a component, includes: a) providing a geometry for the component having a region to be supported, b) providing a support structure for the region of the component, c) defining an irradiation pattern for an irradiation of layers of a raw material for the support structure, wherein surface vectors for an irradiation for a structure of the component extend into a region of the support structure, wherein common surface vectors are defined for the component and for the support structure, and d) selective irradiation of layers of the raw material for the component and the provided support structure according to the defined irradiation pattern.

A method for producing a support structure in the additive manufacturing of a component, includes: a) providing a geometry for the component having a region to be supported, b) providing a support structure for the region of the component, c) defining an irradiation pattern for an irradiation of layers of a raw material for the support structure, wherein surface vectors for an irradiation for a structure of the component extend into a region of the support structure, wherein common surface vectors are defined for the component and for the support structure, and d) selective irradiation of layers of the raw material for the component and the provided support structure according to the defined irradiation pattern.

Disclosed is a method for forming an orthopaedic implant. The method comprises determining one or more parameters of a bone, of a subject, to which the implant is to be attached, and calculating specifications based on parameters. That calculation includes calculating a mechanical property relating to elasticity of the implant, a length of the implant, and positions of two or more fixation locations by which to fix the implant to the bone. The method further comprises forming the implant based on the specifications, wherein each fixation location comprises a longitudinal axis through the implant, and calculating specifications comprises calculating a trajectory for the longitudinal axis of the respective fixation location.

An irradiation device for additively manufacturing three-dimensional objects may include a beam generation device configured to generate an energy beam, an optical modulator including a micromirror array disposed downstream from the beam generation device, and a focusing lens assembly disposed downstream from the optical modulator. The micromirror array may include a plurality of micromirror elements configured to reflect a corresponding plurality of beam segment of the energy beam along a beam path incident upon the focusing lens assembly. The focusing lens assembly may include one or more lenses configured to focus the plurality of beam segments such that for respective ones of a plurality of modulation groups including a subset of micromirror elements, a corresponding subset of beam segments are focused to at least partially overlap with one another at a combination zone corresponding to the respective modulation group.

An apparatus (100) for additive manufacturing of a part of an article from a first material comprising particles having a first composition is provided. The apparatus (100) comprises a layer providing means (110) for providing a first support layer from a second material comprising particles having a second composition, wherein the first composition and the second composition are different. The apparatus (100) comprises a concavity defining means (120) for defining a first concavity in an exposed surface of the first support layer. The apparatus (100) comprises a depositing means (130) for depositing a part of the first material in the first concavity defined in the first support layer. The apparatus (100) comprises a levelling means (140) for selectively levelling the deposited first material in the first concavity. The apparatus (100) comprises a first fusing means (150) for fusing some of the particles of the levelled first material in the first concavity by at least partially melting said particles, thereby forming a first part of the layer of the article. In this way, the second material may be thus used to provide a support structure during additive manufacturing of the part of the article.

A method of additively manufacturing includes generating a thermal model driven scan map that identifies an equiaxed cap region, a single crystal (SX) region, and a columnar to equiaxed transition (CET) region; and forming an active melt pool with respect to the thermal model driven scan map such that a depth of the active melt pool is greater than a thickness of the equiaxed transition (CET) region.

A system and method including receiving a data model representation of a part, the data model representation including at least one layer of the part and inner and outer contours for the at least one layer; determining a hatch pattern for each layer of the at least one layer of the part, the hatch pattern for each layer being dependent on the inner and outer contours for each respective layer; generating a record of the determined hatch pattern for each layer, the record including locations for the hatch pattern for each layer; and saving the record of the determined hatch pattern for each layer of the part. In some aspects, the record of the determined hatch pattern for each layer of the part may be used in an additive manufacturing process.

There is provided a cobalt-based alloy product comprising: in mass %, 0.08-0.25% C; 0.1% or less B; 10-30% Cr; 5% or less Fe and 30% or less Ni, the total amount of Fe and Ni being 30% or less; W and/or Mo, the total amount of W and Mo being 5-12%; 0.5% or less Si; 0.5% or less Mn; 0.003-0.04% N; 0.5 to 2 mass % of an M component being a transition metal other than W and Mo and having an atomic radius of more than 130 pm; and the balance being Co and impurities. The impurities include 0.5% or less Al and 0.04% or less O. The product is a polycrystalline body of matrix phase crystal grains. In the matrix phase crystal grains, segregation cells with an average size of 0.13-2 μm are formed, in which the M component is segregated in boundary regions of the segregation cells.

An apparatus for manufacturing a three dimensional shaped object includes: a manufacturing unit that manufactures a three dimensional shaped object in which a plurality of solidified layers are built up together by repeating to manufacture a solidified layer, which is layered, by performing solidification processing upon a material that is positioned in a region set according to a shape of the three dimensional shaped object that is to be manufactured, to supply a new material upon an upper portion of the solidified layer that has been manufactured, to perform the solidification processing upon the new material and thus to manufacture a new solidified layer; and an inspecting unit that inspects the solidified layer that has already been built up, while the plurality of solidified layers are being built up together.

An apparatus for producing a three-dimensional work piece is provided. The apparatus comprises an irradiation unit comprising at least one scanning unit configured to scan a radiation beam over an uppermost layer of raw material powder to predetermined sites of the uppermost layer of the raw material powder in order to solidify the raw material powder at the predetermined sites. An axis corresponding to the radiation beam when it impinges on the uppermost layer of raw material powder at an angle of 90° is defined as a central axis for the scanning unit. The apparatus further comprises a control unit configured to receive work piece data indicative of at least one layer of the three-dimensional work piece to be produced, and assign at least a part of a contour of the layer of the three-dimensional work piece to the at least one scanning unit. According to a first aspect, the control unit is configured to generate control data for controlling the irradiation unit, the control data defining a scan strategy of the radiation beam such that for more than 50% of a predefined length, the radiation beam moves away from the central axis, the predefined length being defined as a length the radiation beam moves along the contour assigned to the at least one scanning unit, excluding sections concentric with regard to the central axis. Further, corresponding methods and computer program products are provided.