An additive manufacturing apparatus, a computing system, and a method for operating an additive manufacturing apparatus are provided. The method includes obtaining two or more images corresponding to respective build layers at a build plate, wherein each image comprises a plurality of data points comprising a feature and corresponding location at the build plate; removing variation between the features of the plurality of data points; and normalizing each feature to remove location dependence in the plurality of data points.

A manufacturing facility of a sintered product according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes: a molding apparatus configured to press-mold raw material powder containing metal powder to fabricate powder compacts; a marking apparatus configured to mark a product ID including a serial number on each of the powder compacts; a batch processing apparatus configured to perform a predetermined batch process on intermediate materials which are the powder compacts or sintered articles of the powder compacts; a reader apparatus configured to read the product ID of each of the intermediate materials loaded in a batch case of the batch processing apparatus; and a server apparatus configured to communicate with the apparatuses. The server apparatus includes: a communication unit configured to receive a read value of the product ID from the reader apparatus; and a control unit configured to specify a load position of each of the intermediate materials in the batch case based on the received read value.

A method for providing control data for manufacturing at least one three-dimensional object by means of a layer-wise solidification of a building material in an additive manufacturing apparatus is provided. The method includes at least the following steps: a) determining the locations corresponding to the cross section of the at least one object, b) determining at least two different regions to be solidified in said at least one layer, wherein said at least two regions are chosen from the group of: sandwiched region, down-facing region and up-facing region, c) defining a scanning sequence for the beam so as to solidify the building material at least at the locations corresponding to said portion of the cross section of the object, wherein at an interface between a first and a second region differing from each other a scan line of the beam is continuous and at least one beam parameter value is changed.

Methods and apparatus for two-dimensional and three-dimensional scanning path visualization are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a parameter determiner to determine at least one of a laser beam parameter setting or an electron beam parameter setting, a melt pool geometry determiner to identify melt pool dimensions using the parameter setting, the melt pool geometry determiner to vary the parameter setting to obtain multiple melt pool dimensions, and a visualization path generator to generate a three-dimensional view of a scanning path for an additive manufacturing process using the identified melt pool dimensions. The visualization path generator adjusts the laser beam parameters based on the generated three-dimensional view.

Methods and apparatus to identify additively manufactured parts are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a body, formed of layers layered substantially parallel to a base layer, composed of a first material having a first density, a first indicium embedded internally in the body as a void, and a second indicium on an external surface of the body, the second indicium aligning with the first indicium.

A method for the additive construction of a structure for a component includes the following steps: providing a prefabricated component for the component on a building board, wherein the component has a separating plane, providing a powder bed from a base material for the structure, moving the building board closer to a coating device, aligning a processing surface and the separating plane of the component for preventing adhesion between the component and the coating device, and optically measuring a surface of the powder bed.

According to some embodiments, system and methods are provided comprising receiving, via a communication interface of a part parameter dictionary module comprising a processor, geometry data for a plurality of geometric structures forming a plurality of parts, wherein the parts are manufactured with an additive manufacturing machine; determining, using the processor of the part parameter dictionary module, a feature set for each geometric structure; generating, using the processor of the part parameter dictionary module, one of a coupon and a coupon set for the feature set; generating an optimized parameter set for each coupon, using the processor of the part parameter dictionary module, via execution of an iterative learning control process for each coupon; mapping, using the processor of the part parameter dictionary module, one or more parameters of the optimized parameter set to one or more features of the feature set; and generating a dictionary of optimized scan parameter sets to fabricate geometric structures with a material used in additive manufacturing. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Methods and apparatus for two-dimensional and three-dimensional scanning path visualization are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, instructions in the apparatus, and processor circuitry to execute the instructions to identify at least one melt pool dimension using a beam parameter setting, the at least one melt pool dimension identified from a plurality of melt pool dimensions obtained by varying the beam parameter setting, identify a response surface model based on the plurality of melt pool dimensions to determine an effect of variation in the beam parameter setting on the at least one melt pool dimension, output a three-dimensional model of a scanning path for an additive manufacturing process using the response surface model, and adjust the beam parameter setting based on the three-dimensional model to identify a second beam parameter setting.

Methods of additively manufacturing a three-dimensional object by one or more energy beams include selectively directing a first energy beam across a powder bed along a plurality of first hatching paths and a first contour path that defines a first outer contour portion and a first stitching portion, wherein the first outer contour portion at least partially defines a first edge portion of an outer edge of the three-dimensional object, and wherein the first edge portion is non-linear; and selectively directing a second energy beam across the powder bed along a plurality of second hatching paths and a second contour path that at least partially defines a second edge portion of the outer edge of the three-dimensional object, wherein the second edge portion is adjacent the first edge portion, and wherein the first stitching portion extends into the plurality of second hatching paths along a non-linear stitching path.

A method for manufacturing a three-dimensional object includes converting model data of the three-dimensional object into slice data, sintering powder based on the slice data after the conversion, and manufacturing the three-dimensional object by a layered manufacturing process of stacking a plurality of sintered layers. The method includes a part data correction process of correcting positional information of at least one of mutually adjoining part data of the model data of the three-dimensional object, and laying part data on each other by a predetermined amount of overlap, converting the model data corrected in the part data correction process into slice data, and after forming a sintered layer based on the slice data corresponding to one part, forming a sintered layer based on the slice data corresponding to the other part.