METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING AN AIR CONDUIT COMPONENT USING AN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING METHOD WITH MODIFICATION OF AT LEAST ONE PROCESS PARAMETER DURING PROCESS EXECUTION, AND AIR CONDUIT COMPONENT OF THIS KIND

Abstract

A method for manufacturing an air conduit component from a construction material using an additive manufacturing method in accordance with a set of process parameters defining the manufacturing method; at least one process parameter of the process parameter set is modified during additive manufacture of the air conduit component, in order to embody, in the air conduit component, regions having a different porosity that differs in each case from zero.

Claims

1-14. (canceled)

15. A method for manufacturing an air conduit component from a construction material using an additive manufacturing method in accordance with a set of process parameters defining the manufacturing method, wherein at least one process parameter of the process parameter set is modified during additive manufacture of the air conduit component, in order to embody in the air conduit component regions having a different porosity that differs in each case from zero.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the method encompasses, in order to form at least one portion of the air conduit component, sequential formation of a plurality of construction material layers made of the construction material; in a layer forming step, the construction material of a construction material layer that is currently to be formed being applied onto a previously formed construction material layer; the at least one process parameter being modified during the layer forming step of one and the same construction material layer that is to be formed.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the method encompasses, in order to form at least one portion of the air conduit component, sequential formation of a plurality of construction material layers made of the construction material; in a layer forming step, the construction material of a construction material layer that is currently to be formed being applied onto a previously formed construction material layer; the at least one process parameter being modified in such a way that it has a different value in a subsequent layer forming step than in a preceding layer forming step.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the at least one process parameter being modified in such a way that it has a different value in a subsequent layer forming step than in a preceding layer forming step for two successive layer forming steps.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein the at least one process parameter is at least one of modified in steps and modified continuously during the step of manufacturing the air conduit component.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein the at least one process parameter is modified at least one of in accordance with the process time that has already elapsed, in accordance with the current application location of the construction material and in accordance with at least one application location that was used previously.

21. The method according to claim 15, wherein the manufacture of the air conduit component encompasses a step of constituting a carrier structure from a carrier material.

22. The method according to claim 15, wherein the additive manufacturing method is a fused filament fabrication method.

23. The method according to claim 15, wherein the process parameter set encompasses at least one process parameter selected from: an extrusion temperature of the construction material, an application rate of the construction material, and a spacing between directly adjacent extruded layers of the construction material.

24. An air conduit component manufactured using the method in accordance with claim 15, wherein the air conduit component comprises regions having a different porosity that differs in each case from zero.

25. The air conduit component according to claim 24, wherein the air conduit component encompasses an air passage cavity embodied to direct air along a conduit path; the regions including a first region and a second region separate from the first region, from among the regions having a different porosity that differs in each case from zero, adjoining the air passage cavity and being arranged one behind another along the conduit path.

26. The air conduit component according to claim 25, wherein the regions further include a third region and a fourth region separate from the third region, from among the regions having a different porosity that differs in each case from zero, adjoining the air passage cavity and being located at the same height in the air conduit component with respect to the conduit path.

27. The air conduit component according to claim 24, wherein a porosity of the material of the air conduit component changes in at least one of steps and continuously along a path, parallel to an exposed surface, in a material of the air conduit component.

28. The air conduit component according to claim 24, wherein a wall of the air conduit component exhibits a gas permeability in one region of the regions having a different porosity.

29. The air conduit component according to claim 28, wherein the wall of the air conduit component exhibits an air permeability in the one region of the regions having the different porosity.

30. The air conduit component according to claim 24, wherein the air conduit component is one of a snorkel, an intake fitting, a contaminated-air-side air conduit component of a vehicle, and a clean-air-side air conduit component of a vehicle.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0034] The invention may take physical form in certain parts and arrangement of parts, a preferred embodiment of which will be described in detail and illustrated in the accompanying drawings which forms a part hereof and wherein:

[0035] FIG. 1 is a perspective plan view of a basic component of an air conduit component according to the present invention; and

[0036] FIG. 2 schematically depicts a manufacturing method according to the present invention for manufacturing an air conduit component according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0037] Referring now to the drawings wherein the showings are for the purpose of illustrating preferred and alternative embodiments of the invention only and not for the purpose of limiting the same, in FIG. 1, an air conduit component according to the present invention, constituting a constituent of an intake section of an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle, is labeled in general with the number 10. It is part of an intake manifold, having an inflow region 12 that comprises a single inflow 14, having a collector volume 16, and having an outflow region 18 encompassing three outflow conduits 18a, 18b, and 18c. Housing 20 of air conduit component 10 has been manufactured, using an additive fused filament fabrication method, from a thermoplastic constituting a construction material. Inflow 14, collector volume 16, and outflow conduits 18a, 18b, and 18c together constitute an air passage cavity 15 which is surrounded by air conduit component 10 and through which, when air conduit component 10 is operating, air flows along conduit path K in a direction from inflow region 12 to outflow region 18.

[0038] Collector volume 16, in which an air filter can optionally be received, can be closed off by a cover (not depicted). A groove 22 for receiving a seal in order to seal the cover with respect to housing 20 is visible in FIG. 1, as are connecting holes 24 for fastening the cover onto housing 20 (only five of eight connecting holes 24 are labeled with reference characters).

[0039] Inflow region 12 is embodied with a greater porosity than outflow region 18 which is located downstream from inflow region 12 in terms of the passage of air. The porosity of inflow region 12 can be selected so that the wall of inflow region 12 itself is gas-permeable. For better clarity, the porosity of region 12 is indicated only locally by stippling.

[0040] The different porosity is achieved by modifying at least one process parameter while air conduit component 10 is being manufactured by means of the aforesaid additive manufacturing method.

[0041] FIG. 2 schematically shows the additive manufacturing of air conduit component 10. Individual construction material layers 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, and 42 are applied sequentially on top of one another, in a build direction A, onto a base plate 30. Construction material layer 42 is the construction material layer that is currently being applied. The other construction material layers 32 to 40 were applied previously, specifically more recently the higher the value of their reference character or the farther they are located away from base plate 30 in build direction A.

[0042] The construction material is applied by means of an extrusion head 44 having an extrusion nozzle 44a that is moved, under the control of a control apparatus 46, by means of a multi-axis robot 48. Extrusion head 44 melts a filament 50 that is continuously fed during the manufacturing method, and outputs melted filament material constituting the construction material, filament 50 being unwound from a supply spool. Filament 50 is depicted only schematically in FIG. 2. The supply spool is not shown.

[0043] Control apparatus 46 is controlled by a program which is stored in a data memory of the control apparatus and can be previously created and stored as an operating program.

[0044] During the manufacture of air conduit component 10, control apparatus 46 modifies in controlled fashion one or several process parameters in order to embody inflow region 12, in the example depicted, with a different (in this case, higher) porosity than outflow region 18. For example, the control apparatus can modify the speed at which extrusion nozzle 44a moves, and/or the extrusion temperature and thus the viscosity of the extruded construction material.

[0045] It is thereby possible to generate an air conduit component 10 that is optimally acoustically matched with respect to the sound sources that interact with it in its installation situation, including the air that passes through it and constitutes a sound source.

[0046] Air conduit component 10 can also comprise solid portions having no porosity at all. According to the present invention, it comprises at least two portions of different porosity, each portion having a porosity differing from zero.

[0047] While considerable emphasis has been placed on the preferred embodiments of the invention illustrated and described herein, it will be appreciated that other embodiments, and equivalences thereof, can be made and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiments without departing from the principles of the invention. Furthermore, the embodiments described above can be combined to form yet other embodiments of the invention of this application. Accordingly, it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the invention and not as a limitation.