Patent ID: 8452440
Filing Date: 2013-05-28
Classification: B22F,B29C,B33Y,Y02P,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A method of forming an article from a computer software file representing the article, wherein the method comprises a layer-wise manufacturing process of fusing metal or polymer powder by applying a point source of heat to the powder in such a way as to create layers of the article one at a time, and includes: (i) dividing the file into sub-files each representing at least a respective one of features of the article to be created, based on differences in characteristics of the features, wherein the sub-files overlap such that respective parts of the sub-files each represent the same region in at least one of the layers of the article to be created; (ii) correlating with each of the sub-files a value of a parameter of the manufacturing process in dependence on the characteristic of the feature represented by the sub-file; and (iii) subsequently loading data of the correlated sub-files into a layer-wise manufacturing apparatus, and operating the apparatus to manufacture the article using the process controlled in accordance with the data of the correlated sub-files, wherein the parameter of the manufacturing process is varied in creating the layer and the process is performed on the same portion of the metal or polymer in accordance with data of each of the correlated sub-files during the course of forming the layer such that said region in the layer is processed more than once during the course of forming the layer and before the forming of a subsequent layer thereon has begun.