Patent ID: 11958241
Assignee: NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. A continuous filament additive manufacturing machine for building a part by laying down a continuous mono-filament or continuous composite filament material layer by layer on a tool or substrate, said machine comprising:
a system operable to move in at least three degrees of freedom; and
a placement module coupled to the system and being configured to deposit the continuous filament material, said placement module including a guide for guiding the material to the part and at least one ultrasonic compaction device for compacting the material as it is being deposited from the placement module, said at least one ultrasonic compaction device including at least one ultrasonic driver, an attachment member coupled to the at least one driver and whose motion is directly driven by the ultrasonic driver and a plurality of ultrasonic horns independently coupled to the attachment member and being movable independent of each other, said plurality of ultrasonic horns being ultrasonically vibrated to melt or flow the material under the horns and cause the material to fuse and be compacted to the tool or substrate.