Patent ID: 11931824
Assignee: VULCANFORMS INC.
Field: Machine tools (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  Y | IPC B

Claim 21:
22. An additive manufacturing system comprising:
a build surface;
a plurality of laser energy sources;
an optics assembly movable relative to the build surface and configured to direct laser energy from the plurality of laser energy sources towards the build surface to form an array of laser energy pixels on the build surface, wherein a relative position of each laser energy pixel in the array is fixed, and wherein movement of the optics assembly relative to the build surface moves the plurality of laser energy sources relative to the build surface;
a position sensor configured to detect a position of the optics assembly within a two-dimensional plane and generate a position signal; and
a laser control system comprising:
a first processor configured to receive the position signal from the position sensor, split the position signal, and transmit the split position signal to a plurality of laser control modules, the plurality of laser control modules configured to provide synchronized, position-based control of the plurality of laser energy sources,

wherein each laser control module is configured to control operation of a subset of the plurality of laser energy sources, and wherein each laser control module includes at least one processor configured to trigger one or more laser energy sources of the subset of the plurality of laser energy sources based at least in part on the split position signal received from the first processor.