Resource management system and additive manufacturing facility having the same

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a resource management system (39) for managing the supply of resource materials and / or resource items to at least two plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) for additive manufacturing, the resource management system (39) including a control unit (41) configured to receive signals indicating requests for resource materials and / or resource items from any of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3), the control unit (39) being configured to schedule the supply of the requested resource materials and / or resource items according to a predetermined prioritization scheme to resolve conflicts among the requests.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure refers to a resource management system and an additive manufacturing facility having such a resource management system. In particular, the present disclosure relates to an additive manufacturing facility for serial production on an industrial scale, the additive manufacturing facility including a plurality of additive manufacturing machines for additive manufacturing three-dimensional objects in parallel. More particularly, the additive manufacturing machines are preferably configured to utilize laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) as an additive manufacturing technique.

[0002] Additive manufacturing of three-dimensional objects is often referred to as 3D printing. One example of additive manufacturing is laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), in which layers of raw material powder are exposed to a high-energy beam of electromagnetic radiation, e.g. a laser beam or a particle beam, to selectively sinter and / or melt particles of the raw material powder. The three-dimensional object is produced by successively sintering and / or melting layers of the raw material powder.

[0003] Compared to traditional manufacturing techniques such as molding, additive manufacturing of a single three-dimensional object consumes significantly more time. Therefore, in the early days of 3D printing, additive manufacturing was only used for prototyping or a small number of individual parts. However, since additive manufacturing offers the possibility to design and manufacture components that cannot be used with other traditional manufacturing techniques, there is a demand to use additive manufacturing for serial production on an industrial scale. The development of additive manufacturing over the past decades has reduced the production time per layer to a certain extent, for example by using multiple lasers in parallel. However, there is a limit to how much the production time per layer can be reduced. Therefore, in order to use additive manufacturing for serial production on an industrial scale, components need to be manufactured in parallel. For example, hundreds or thousands of small components can be densely arranged to form a three-dimensional object, maximizing the available production volume. However, there is also a limit to the maximum available production volume. To use additive manufacturing for further parallel processing, an additive manufacturing facility may have multiple additive manufacturing machines or process chambers. The number of additive manufacturing machines operating in parallel is in principle not limited.

[0004] Since each additive manufacturing process requires a specific resource material and / or resource item, it may be inefficient to provide the necessary infrastructure for the supply of resource material and / or resource items for each additive manufacturing machine individually. Typical resource materials are, for example, one or more types of raw material powder that need to be supplied to each additive manufacturing machine. Furthermore, each additive manufacturing machine requires a supply of at least one laser source and shielding gas as resource materials and / or resource items. The term "resource material and / or resource items" should be understood broadly in the sense of everything that needs to be supplied of an additive manufacturing machine for a production process. For example, a resource item may be a transfer slot in a common transport system for moving the build chamber. Providing a common infrastructure for the supply of resource material and / or resource items to multiple additive manufacturing machines may be efficient in many cases. However, such a common infrastructure for the supply of resource material and / or resource items may require a specific management of the supply. For example, US2018 / 0021855A1 discloses a method for managing powder supply in an additive manufacturing facility including multiple machines.

[0005] US 2018 / 0021855 A1 proposes replacing the internal recycling system of each AM machine, such as that disclosed in US 7,887,316, with a common powder recycling system for all AM machines.

[0006] A common powder recycling system as proposed in US2018 / 0021855A1 has the problem that if two additive manufacturing machines require powder and the common powder recycling system is only equipped to supply powder to one additive manufacturing machine at a time, conflicting requirements may arise. As a result, the system described in US2018 / 0021855A1 cannot operate with maximum efficiency and flexibility. For example, a critical powder supply to one machine may not be able to start while a less critical powder supply to another machine is in progress. Summary of the Invention

[0007] It is therefore an object of the present disclosure to provide a resource management system for managing the supply of resource materials and / or resource items to at least two multiple additive manufacturing machines for additive manufacturing that is more efficient and flexible than systems known from the prior art.

[0008] According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a resource management system for managing a supply of resource material and / or resource items to at least two multiple additive manufacturing machines for additive manufacturing, the resource management system including a control unit configured to receive a signal indicating a request for resource material and / or resource items of any of the multiple additive manufacturing machines, the control unit configured to schedule the supply of the requested resource material and / or resource items in accordance with a predetermined prioritization scheme to resolve conflicting requests.

[0009] The term "resource material and / or resource items" should be broadly understood to include one or more types of raw material powder, laser light from one or more common laser light sources, shielding gas from a common shielding gas source, substrate plates from a common substrate plate depot, build chambers from a common build chamber depot, transfer slots in a common transfer system for any of the above resource materials / resource items, cooling slots in a common storage system, e.g. slots in a build chamber depot station, unpacking slots in a common unpacking station, service (time) slots from a common service source, e.g. automatic service, cleaning and / or calibration equipment or operating staff, and / or slots for required pre- and / or post-processing in a common pre- and / or post-processing system, e.g. slots in further conventional processing machines such as sandblasting, sawing, polishing, etching, milling, heating, autoclaving, galvanizing, coating, etc. The demand-based resource management system according to the present disclosure provides more flexibility to supply requested resource materials and / or resource items to individual additive manufacturing machines as needed. In the case of competing requests, efficiency is increased by scheduling the supply of requested resource materials and / or resource items according to a predefined prioritization scheme, since the competing requests can be ranked according to predefined criteria. For example, the supply for an ongoing build job can be given a higher priority than that of a build job to be started. As another example, a request to unpack a build after a finished job can be given a lower priority than providing an additive manufacturing machine with a build chamber to start a new job.

[0010] Optionally, the resource management system may further include a supply system for supplying at least one requested resource material and / or resource item to the multiple additive manufacturing machines in a manner scheduled by the control unit. For example, the supply system may include a common vacuum transfer pipe system for supplying raw material powder to the multiple additive manufacturing machines. Alternatively or additionally, the supply system may include a common shielding gas piping system for connecting a common shielding gas source to the multiple additive manufacturing machines. Alternatively or additionally, the supply system may include a common light guiding system, e.g., a fiber optic line, connecting a common laser light source to one or more of the additive manufacturing machines. Alternatively or additionally, the supply system may include a transport system for transporting substrate plates and / or build chambers to / from a common build chamber depot station and / or to / from a common unpacking station.

[0011] Optionally, the supply system may be configured to supply at least one requested resource material and / or resource item to a number of additive manufacturing machines less than the total number of additive manufacturing machines at a time, in particular to only one additive manufacturing machine at a time. This allows for a less complex distributed supply infrastructure. Since the processing time of additive manufacturing is often at least an order of magnitude longer than the time to supply the resource material and / or resource item, a more complex supply system that allows parallel supply may result in an inefficient use of the supply system. It is noted that certain resource materials and / or resource items, such as shielding gas, are very easy to supply in parallel. For those resource materials and / or resource items, the supply system is preferably configured to supply the requested resource material and / or resource item in parallel to more than one additive manufacturing machine at a time. For those resource materials and / or resource items, scheduling according to a predefined prioritization scheme is less important, since conflicts of requests for those resource materials and / or resource items are less likely.

[0012] Optionally, the prioritization scheme may be based on a ranking of the current severity of the impact of a shortage of supply of the requested resource material and / or resource item at the current operating state of the additive manufacturing machine. For example, if a shortage of supply of raw material powder to a particular additive manufacturing machine where a building process (build job) is currently in progress leads to an interruption of that job, the cost of such an interruption may be much higher than a delay in starting a new production process in another machine. As another example, the supply of a particular resource material and / or resource item, such as a replacement of a build chamber before or after a job, may require a machine shutdown and / or manual intervention by the operating staff. If such a request is received at night or on a weekend, in any case when the operating staff is not present, the ranking of the severity of the shortage may be lower than during normal working hours. Thus, the prioritization scheme may depend on various factors, such as the time of day, the availability of the resource material and / or resource item, the severity of the shortage, and / or a forecasting or optimization scheme. The control unit may be programmed with machine learning algorithms, for example, to optimize the scheduling of the resource requests.

[0013] Optionally, the control unit may be configured to stop ongoing supply to a first one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines to start supply to a second one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines under the following cumulative condition: - if the ongoing supply to the first chamber is not stopped, a supply shortage to the second additive manufacturing machine is unavoidable; and - a current severity ranking of the shortage of supply to the second additive manufacturing machine is above a first predetermined severity threshold; and - a current severity rank of the shortage of supply to the first additive manufacturing machine is below a second predetermined severity threshold. The first and second severity thresholds may be set independently for different levels of severity or the same level of severity. The severity levels may be determined on a continuous or discontinuous scale. In a very simple prioritization scheme, the severity may be grouped into "high severity", "medium severity" and "low severity". Thus, the prioritization may be "high priority" for high severity, "medium priority" for medium severity and "low priority" for low severity. In this example, if the control unit receives a high priority supply request due to a high severity rank, it will stop an ongoing supply of a lower priority if it is unavoidable. For example, if a common vacuum piping system is currently being used to fill a powder buffer to a machine to start a new job, the control unit may stop the ongoing filling process to prioritize the refill of a powder buffer of another machine in a currently ongoing job to prevent interruption of the ongoing build job.

[0014] Optionally, the resource material may be at least one raw material powder that is irradiated with electromagnetic or particle radiation in an additive manufacturing process in an additive manufacturing machine, and the resource item is a build chamber with a carrier on which a three-dimensional object can be produced from the at least one raw material powder. Preferably, the at least one type of raw material powder is dispensed from a common raw material powder tank by a vacuum piping system. If different types of raw material powder are used in parallel, separate piping tanks and vacuum piping systems may be required for each type of raw material powder. Alternatively, the powder may be dispensed via a cartridge that is preferably fed to the machine using the same transport system as for the build chamber. In particular, the powder cartridge may be designed as the build chamber. Each build job for a three-dimensional object may require a new carrier with a new substrate plate on which the object is produced. There may be a stock or depot of build chambers and carriers that can be reused for many build jobs. The carriers of the build chambers may be equipped with new substrate plates for each build job.

[0015] Optionally, the resource material may be at least two feedstock powders irradiated with electromagnetic or particle radiation in an additive manufacturing process in the additive manufacturing machine, the at least two feedstock powders including a first feedstock powder and a second feedstock powder, the first feedstock powder and the second feedstock powder differing from each other in material type and / or particle size, and the supply system configured to supply the first feedstock powder and the second feedstock powder to the additive manufacturing machine separately, thereby enabling one or more of the multiple additive manufacturing machines to manufacture three-dimensional objects comprised of two or more different materials.

[0016] Optionally, the resource management system may further include a laser supply system for supplying the laser light generated by the one or more laser light sources to the multiple additive manufacturing machines in a manner scheduled by the control unit, preferably taking into account that laser irradiation is not required during pre-processing, post-processing and servicing. It should be noted that the laser light guided by the laser optics to the powder bed may include some laser idle times during a build job, for example, when a new powder layer is being deposited on the powder bed and / or during the irradiation of vector hatches ("jumps") and / or during the irradiation of a single vector ("skylighting"). If not all the laser optics of the additive manufacturing machine can deflect their respective irradiation beams over the powder bed, the irradiation time cannot be distributed equally to all the laser optics, which may result in laser idle times for one or more laser optics. A common laser light source including one or more equal or different laser light sources for one or more of the multiple additive manufacturing machines may be more efficient than providing a laser light source for each of the additive manufacturing machines individually. If available in the manufacturing facility, other laser processing machines, such as laser cutting machines, laser welding machines, laser marking machines, etc., can also be provided with laser light from a common laser source. The laser light provided by the common laser source can be distributed to different additive manufacturing machines or different laser optics, taking into account their laser idle times. Additionally or alternatively, the laser light can be allocated simultaneously or near simultaneously to different additive manufacturing machines or different optics, for example, by splitting the laser light spatially (e.g., by a beam splitter) and / or temporally (e.g., by a pulsed laser source). However, when the laser light of a common laser source is shared between one or more of the additive manufacturing machines, the total available optical power may not be sufficient to simultaneously meet all the requirements of a particular laser light.Thus, the control unit may be configured to schedule the supply of requested laser light according to a predefined prioritization scheme for resolving competing requests for laser light. The prioritization scheme may be the same as or different from the prioritization scheme used for the supply of raw material powder. The common laser light source may include laser light sources having different wavelengths, for example "infrared", "red", "green" and / or "blue" laser light sources. In a building process with different materials, it may be advantageous to use laser light with different wavelengths for different materials. In a preferred embodiment, the additive manufacturing machine may include at least one first laser light source suitable for processing a wide range of materials, for example a "red" or "infrared" laser light source, and at least one second laser light source suitable for processing less common materials, for example a "green" or "blue" laser light source, the use of the first and second laser light sources being suitable for being scheduled by a resource management system between the additive manufacturing machines. Alternatively or additionally, the common laser light source may include laser light sources having different powers and / or operating modes, for example a continuous wave mode or a pulsed mode.

[0017] According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an additive manufacturing facility, the additive manufacturing facility comprising: - at least two additive manufacturing machines for additively manufacturing three-dimensional objects in parallel; - a resource management system as described above for managing the supply of resource materials and / or resource items to said at least two plurality of additive manufacturing machines; Includes.

[0018] Optionally, the additive manufacturing facility may further include an unpacking station for unpacking the three-dimensional object from the build chamber and removing residual raw material powder from the three-dimensional object. Preferably, the additive manufacturing facility includes a common transport system for the build chamber to be transported from any of the additive manufacturing machines to the unpacking station.

[0019] Optionally, the additive manufacturing facility may further include a build chamber depot station for pre- and / or post-processing multiple build chambers in parallel. For example, the build chamber and its carrier may be pre-heated to a desired operating temperature for the start of a new build job as a pre-processing. A typical post-processing of the build chamber after the build job is finished may be a controlled cooling, which includes controlled heating to prevent an excessively rapid cooling process. An excessively rapid cooling process may result in undesirable material stresses on the just-produced three-dimensional object. On the other hand, an excessively slow cooling process increases the overall production time and the cost per object. Therefore, the control unit may schedule requested free slots in the build chamber depot station for pre- and / or post-processing according to a prioritization scheme. The prioritization scheme may depend on a particular sensor output, e.g., a temperature sensor output. For example, both a first machine and a second machine request a cooling slot in the build chamber depot station for their build chambers after job completion. The temperature sensor of the first build chamber may indicate a higher temperature than the temperature sensor of the second build chamber. If only one slot is currently available in the build chamber depot station, the hotter build chamber may be prioritized. Depending on the temperature of the other build chambers in the build chamber depot station, the control unit may release the slot of the cooler build chamber to allow the hotter build chamber to cool down. Optionally, the thermal deformation tendencies of different build jobs, identified from the build file, may be taken into account. The cooling process may be given a higher priority than the warming process, since the severity of the deterioration of the quality of the object may be higher than the delay in starting a new build job. Thus, if a slot in the build chamber depot station needs to be freed for the cooling process, the warming process may be stopped.

[0020] Optionally, at least one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines may include an internal raw material powder recycling system, which is configured to directly recycle residual raw material powder during an ongoing building process (build job). In order to use the machine more efficiently, it is advantageous to directly recycle residual raw material powder in the machine during the ongoing building process. Since each layer of raw material powder requires a significant amount of excess raw material powder to be scraped off from each layer during the layer formation process, the internal raw material powder recycling system significantly increases the manufacturing capacity of the machine. A machine having an internal raw material powder recycling system requires less raw material powder replenishment and therefore less requests to send to the resource management system. However, the internal raw material powder recycling system may make the raw material powder requests of the machine less predictable, increasing the chances of request conflicts and resolution of request conflicts.

[0021] Optionally, at least one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines includes at least one raw material powder buffer for buffering the raw material powder, the at least one raw material powder buffer including a fill level detector configured to trigger a signal indicating a request for raw material powder as a resource material. Preferably, the at least one raw material powder buffer may be configured to receive recycled residual raw material powder directly from an internal raw material powder recycling system during an ongoing building process. To that end, the raw material powder buffer may be replenished on the one hand via a common raw material powder transfer system, e.g. a vacuum piping system, connecting the raw material powder tank and the individual raw material powder buffers of the additive manufacturing machines of the facility. On the other hand, each of the raw material powder buffers may be replenished directly during an ongoing building process by the internal raw material powder recycling system of the respective machine. The fill level detector may include one or more sensors, e.g. one or more photosensitive sensors at a specific vertical position of or within the raw material powder buffer. Two or more sensors may be provided at different vertical positions to detect the consumption rate of the raw material powder. By the control unit, future raw material powder demands may be predicted and scheduled according to a predefined prioritization scheme to resolve competing demands. Alternatively or additionally, the resource management system may provide a selectable option for the user to set the recycling percentage or a selectable operating mode without direct recycling, i.e. using only new raw material powder. Preferably, the user may also be able to request that the new raw material powder must come from a single charge of new raw material powder.

[0022] Optionally, the resource management system may be further configured to forecast one or more demands for resource materials and / or resource items of any of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines and reschedule the supply of said forecasted demands for resource materials and / or resource items according to a predefined prioritization scheme to resolve demand conflicts. For example, the resource management system may access build data, i.e., build files, based on which a three-dimensional object has been built or is planned to be built. The resource management system may also be aware of any relevant machine parameters and / or operating conditions and / or operating modes.

[0023] Thus, the resource management system may be able to predict which resources will be needed by which machines at which times. Furthermore, the resource management system may also be able to predict from which times which resources will no longer be needed by which machines. Thus, the supply of predicted demands for resource materials and / or resource items may be rescheduled according to a predefined prioritization scheme to resolve conflicts in predicted demands. For example, a machine may be instructed to drain recycled residual raw material powder so that a completely new amount of raw material powder is supplied before the next build job to avoid demands during the next build job. As another example, it may be predicted that a cooling (cool-down) slot will be needed soon, but no slots in the build chamber depot station are available at that time. The resource management system may then request that a build chamber that is not yet fully warmed up, i.e., a "cold" build chamber, be transported from the build chamber depot station to the machine and that the "cold" build chamber be warmed up in the machine. This frees up the slot that is predicted to be needed. As a further example, a build job may be predicted to be completed over the weekend, after which there is no staff available to clean the machine. The speed, failure risk and / or quality of the build jobs may be adjusted accordingly by the resource management system, or conversely, build jobs requiring higher quality, lower failure risk and / or longer build times may be scheduled to run over weekends. Certain reconfiguration and service work, such as filter changes, may be required for certain build jobs, and such reconfiguration and service work may be minimized by scheduling groups of build jobs during which reconfiguration and service work is not or is less required. For example, the same raw material powder may be used to reduce the number of filter changes. Also, similar or identical build jobs running in parallel on a machine may be scheduled in groups, since pre- and post-processing are similar or identical.

[0024] According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for managing a supply of resource material and / or resource items to at least two multiple additive manufacturing machines for additive manufacturing, the method comprising: - receiving a signal indicating a request for resource material and / or resource items for any of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines; and - Scheduling the supply of requested resource materials and / or resource items according to a predefined prioritization scheme to resolve conflicting requests; Includes.

[0025] Optionally, the method may further comprise triggering a signal indicating a request for resource material and / or resource item, either manually by request input of the operation staff or automatically based on sensor detection or measurement. The operation staff may set various parameters and threshold levels for automatic triggering of a request for supply of resource material and / or resource item.

[0026] Optionally, the prioritization scheme may be based on a current severity ranking of the impact of a shortage of the required resource material and / or resource item in the current operational state of the additive manufacturing machine. For example, if a shortage of raw material powder leads to the interruption of an ongoing build job, the current severity ranking may be the highest. Thus, the prioritization scheme would, for example, prioritize the supply of raw material powder to a machine currently manufacturing a part over supplying raw material powder to a machine to start a new build job.

[0027] Optionally, scheduling the supply may include stopping an ongoing supply to a first one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines to start a supply to a second one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines under a cumulative condition that: - a shortage of supply to the second additive manufacturing machine would be unavoidable unless the ongoing supply to the first additive manufacturing machine was stopped; and - a current severity rank for the shortage of supply to the second additive manufacturing machine is above a first predetermined severity threshold; and - a current severity rank for a shortage of supply to the first additive manufacturing machine is below a second predetermined severity threshold. For example, a raw material buffer of a first machine is currently being filled with raw material powder to start a new build job. During this filling process, another second machine that is currently building may request a new supply of raw material powder to continue the ongoing building process. Since interrupting the ongoing building process has a higher severity rank than delaying the start of the new building process, the first machine stops filling its raw material buffer to supply raw material powder to the second machine, thereby not interrupting the ongoing building process of the second machine.

[0028] Optionally, the method may further include recycling the residual feedstock powder directly during the ongoing build process, which, as mentioned above, improves the overall efficiency of the use of available feedstock powder and increases the capacity of each machine equipped with an internal powder recycling system.

[0029] Optionally, the method further comprises: - buffering raw material powder for the at least one additive manufacturing machine in a raw material powder buffer of the at least one additive manufacturing machine of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines; - monitoring the fill level of the raw material powder buffer; and - triggering a signal indicating a request of at least one additive manufacturing machine for raw material powder as a resource material; It may further include.

[0030] Optionally, the method may further include directly recycling the residual raw material powder to an associated raw material powder buffer during an ongoing build process in at least one additive manufacturing machine. Alternatively or additionally, the user may set the percentage of recycling, or may set to suspend direct recycling entirely, i.e., to build only with new raw material powder. Preferably, the user may require that the new raw material powder must be a single charge of new raw material powder.

[0031] Optionally, the method may further include forecasting one or more demands for resource materials and / or resource items for any of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines and rescheduling the supply of said forecasted demands for resource materials and / or resource items according to a predefined prioritization scheme to resolve demand conflicts. Any relevant machine parameters and / or operating states and / or operating modes may be known. Furthermore, all information contained in the build data, i.e. the build file, based on which the three-dimensional object is being built or the building of the three-dimensional object is planned, may be accessible.

[0032] It is therefore possible to predict which resources will be needed by which machines at which times. It is also possible to predict from which times which resources will no longer be needed by which machines. The supply of predicted demands for resource materials and / or resource items can then be rescheduled according to a predefined prioritization scheme to resolve conflicts in predicted demands. For example, a machine may be instructed to drain recycled residual raw material powder before the next build job to avoid any demand during the next build job, so that a completely new amount of raw material powder is supplied. As another example, it may be predicted that a cooling slot will be needed soon, but no slots in the build chamber depot station are available at that time. The resource management system may then request that a build chamber that is not yet fully warmed up, i.e., a "cold" build chamber, be transported from the build chamber depot station to the machine, and that the "cold" build chamber be warmed up in the machine. This frees up the slot that is predicted to be needed. As a further example, a build job may be predicted to be completed over the weekend, and there is no staff available to clean the machine afterwards. The speed, failure risk and / or quality of a build job may be adjusted accordingly by the resource management system, or conversely, build jobs requiring higher quality, lower failure risk and / or longer build times may be scheduled to run over weekends. Certain reconfiguration and service work, e.g., filter changes, may be required for certain build jobs. Such reconfiguration and service work may be minimized by scheduling groups of build jobs during which reconfiguration and service work is not or is less needed. For example, using the same raw material powder to reduce the number of filter changes. Also, similar or identical build jobs performed in parallel on multiple machines may be scheduled in groups since pre- and post-processing are similar or identical.

[0033] Further embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the following drawings, in which: [Brief description of the drawings]

[0034] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of an example additive manufacturing facility according to the present disclosure. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a top view of the additive manufacturing facility of FIG. 1. [Diagram 3] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a dashboard display for a resource management system according to the present disclosure. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of an example of a build chamber storage station of an additive manufacturing facility according to the present invention. [Diagram 5] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating another example of an additive manufacturing facility according to the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0035] 1 and 2 show an additive manufacturing facility 1 including a plurality of (five) additive manufacturing machines 3. It should be noted that the number of machines 3, five, is chosen for this example, and the additive manufacturing facility 1 can include any number of additive manufacturing machines 3, more than one. Some or all of the additive manufacturing machines 3 may be identical or may differ from each other in certain aspects. The advantage of a parallel configuration of identical additive manufacturing machines 3 as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 may be advantageous for high-quality additive manufacturing in serial production on an industrial scale. The additive manufacturing facility 1 may be capable of manufacturing thousands of components in parallel if one of the additive manufacturing machines 3 is capable of manufacturing hundreds of components in parallel in a single build job. If one, some, or all of the additive manufacturing machines 3 are different from each other by certain aspects, the additive manufacturing facility 1 may be more versatile for manufacturing a wide variety of products. For example, one or some of the additive manufacturing machines 3 may be capable of manufacturing components composed of two different materials.

[0036] The additive manufacturing machines 3 are arranged in a row configuration parallel and spaced apart on an elevated platform to allow operating staff to access each additive manufacturing machine 3. The additive manufacturing facility 1 further comprises a supply system 7 for supplying resource materials and / or resource items to the additive manufacturing machines 3. As part of the supply system 7, a transport system 9 extends along the row of additive manufacturing machines 3 to transport build chambers 11 to and from the additive manufacturing machines 3. The elevation of the platform 5 allows transport to and from additive manufacturing machines 4 located lower than the platform 5 and / or the installation of machines 3 with high build chambers 11 without the need for foundation construction. Thus, build chambers 11 with a height of more than 80 centimeters can be used for the additive manufacturing machines 3. In Figs. 1 and 2, currently one build chamber 11 is shown on the path to or from one of the additive manufacturing machines 3. The transport system 9 is capable of transporting the build chamber 11 on a linear rail along a row of multiple additive manufacturing machines 3. The transport system 9 is further configured to move and position the build chamber 11 up and down. Furthermore, the transport system 9 is capable of transporting the build chamber 11 into the additive manufacturing machine 3 for mounting the build chamber 11 in a process chamber of the additive manufacturing machine 3.

[0037] The additive manufacturing facility 1 further includes an unpacking station 13, sometimes called a powder removal station. The unpacking station 13 is used to unpack the build chamber 11 after the completion of a build job in order to remove unmelted or unsintered raw material powder from the manufactured object. Such residual raw material powder can be recycled and reused after recovery, sieving, filtering, drying, and / or other treatments. As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the unpacking station 13 may be located at one end of the linear rail of the transport system 9. At the other end of the linear rail of the transport system 9, the additive manufacturing facility 1 may further include a build chamber depot station 15 for storing and buffering the build chamber 11 before and / or after a build job. The positions at both ends of the transport system 9 shown are only examples. Preferably, the number and arrangement of the machines 3 may be considered in terms of location to provide an optimal transport route. Multiple unpacking stations 13 and multiple depot stations 15 may be provided. The build chamber depot station 15 may be used for pre- and / or post-treatment of the build chamber 11. For example, the build chamber 11 may be heated to a processing temperature before being transferred to the additive manufacturing machine 3 for the next build job. Alternatively or additionally, the build chamber 11 may be cooled in a controlled manner in the build chamber depot station 15 after the manufacturing process. The controlled cooling process may include heating the build chamber 11 to slow down the cooling time to avoid thermally induced structural stresses in the manufactured object. Alternatively or additionally, the operating staff may use a remote control terminal, e.g. a personal computer, to monitor and control the build jobs for some or all of the multiple additive manufacturing machines, preferably for the entire manufacturing facility.

[0038] The additive manufacturing facility 1 further includes a common raw material powder supply 17 from which raw material powder is supplied to the multiple additive manufacturing machines 3 via a vacuum piping system 19. The common raw material powder supply 17 includes a raw material powder tank and, optionally, a filter and / or a sieve for purifying the raw material powder before supply to the additive manufacturing machines 3. The raw material powder tank can be filled with fresh raw material powder from an external source and / or recycled raw material powder from the unpacking station 13. One, some, or all of the multiple additive manufacturing machines 3 may include an internal recycling system for recycling raw material powder used beyond the deposition of each layer during the building process. Alternatively or additionally, excess raw material powder of one, some, or all of the multiple additive manufacturing machines 3 may be sent to a common raw material powder source via one or more return lines of the vacuum piping system 19 and recycled via the common raw material powder source. The vacuum piping system 19 may include one or more suction pumps for providing a negative pressure driving a gas flow through the vacuum piping system 19 conveying the raw material powder. The additive manufacturing facility 1 includes a common shielding gas source for supplying a shielding gas such as nitrogen or argon to the additive manufacturing machines 3. Each of the additive manufacturing machines 3 may include one or more process chambers for additive manufacturing. In the example shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, each additive manufacturing machine 3 includes one process chamber. Before an additive build job is started, the build chamber 11 needs to be attached to the process chamber of the additive manufacturing machine 3 from below. An operating staff member standing on a platform 5 at the position of any of the additive manufacturing machines 3 can look into the process chamber of each additive manufacturing machine 3 through a window 21. The additive manufacturing machines 3 may include a supervisory control terminal 23 including a display 25 and input means. The operating staff member may monitor and control the build job for each additive manufacturing machine 3 individually using the supervisory control terminal 23 of the additive manufacturing machine 3.

[0039] The complete production cycle of the additive manufacturing facility 1 starts with the assembly of one or more build chambers 11, which are resource items of the additive manufacturing process. The build chambers 11 include a carrier in the form of a bottom plate package, a peripheral side wall and a lid. The carrier includes a top substrate plate on which the object is subsequently built (made) or "grown". Furthermore, the carrier includes heating elements and fixing points for temporarily fixing the carrier from below. The carrier is axially movable within the peripheral side wall and can be locked in a bottom position. The carrier thereby seals the build chamber 11 from below. A lid is used to seal the build chamber 11 at the top. The lid includes a shielding gas connector for connection to a shielding gas supply in order to provide a sufficient shielding gas atmosphere in the build chamber 11 when necessary.

[0040] Once the carrier, the peripheral sidewall and the lid are assembled, the build chamber 11 is warmed up in the build chamber depot station 15. Once the build chamber 11 is warmed up to a predetermined or set processing temperature, it is ready to be assigned to and transferred to one of the multiple additive manufacturing machines 3. According to an optional aspect of the invention, it is also possible to warm up the build chamber 13 in the additive manufacturing machine 3 instead of the build chamber depot station 15. Warming up in the machine may require longer time, but can be commanded by the resource management system, for example, when a slot in the build chamber depot station 15 is needed for an operation with higher priority, such as cooling. When the build chamber 11 arrives at the respective additive manufacturing machine 3, it is positioned below the process chamber of the machine 3. The lid can then be taken and the peripheral sidewall can be sealingly attached to the process chamber from below. The process chamber is opened towards the build chamber and the carrier is moved upwards to the upper position. This allows the feeder to deposit a first layer of raw material powder on the substrate plate for additive manufacturing in the process chamber. The described docking process is only an example. It is also possible that the build chamber 13 and / or the process chamber can be opened and closed in different ways. In particular, it is possible that the build chamber lid and the process chamber cover are moved together and / or that the build chamber lid is moved inside the process chamber.

[0041] While a sufficient shielding gas atmosphere prevails in the process chamber, the process of continuous layer-by-layer irradiation of raw material powder is started. After each laser irradiation of a layer, the carrier is moved stepwise downwards by the thickness of one layer in the peripheral side wall of the build chamber 11. A new layer is then deposited by a feeder on the previously irradiated layer. So that the top layer to be irradiated is always in the same axial position in the process chamber. The manufactured object thereby "grows" in the build chamber 11 attached to the process chamber from below. At the end of the build job, the build chamber 11 is filled with the manufactured object and the excess non-melted or non-sintered raw material powder of all layers. It is noted that the deposition of a new layer requires the excess raw material powder to be scraped off by a scraper to achieve a planar layer of the desired thickness. The excess (residual) raw material powder can be recycled in the internal recycling system of the machine 3 and / or in the common recycling system of the facility 1. Optionally, the recycled powder may be mixed with new powder in a fixed or variable ratio, preferably such that a predetermined minimum amount of new powder is used. In case of an internal recycle system of the machine 3, the excess (residual) raw material powder is sieved and transported back into the raw material powder buffer of the machine 3, from where the feeders obtain raw material powder for the deposition of a new layer. In case of a common recycle system of the facility 1, the excess (residual) raw material powder is transported back via the vacuum piping system 19 to the common raw material powder tank of the common raw material powder supply 17. The raw material powder buffer of the machine 3 is connected to the vacuum piping system 19 and is filled with new and / or recycled raw material powder.

[0042] Once the build job is finished, the process chamber is closed to preserve the internal shielding gas atmosphere for the subsequent build job. The build chamber is moved downwards away from the process chamber and the lid is placed back onto the peripheral side wall to close the top of the build chamber and preserve as much of the internal shielding gas atmosphere as possible. The process chamber may be manually or automatically cleaned from residual raw material powder for the subsequent build job. Preferably, a connection to a gas supply is established to ensure sufficient shielding atmosphere during cooling.

[0043] After a build job, the build chamber 11 needs to be cooled in a controlled manner and a cooling slot is requested in the build chamber depot station 15. When a cooling slot is available in the build chamber depot station 15, the build chamber 11 is transferred to the build chamber depot station 15 where the carrier is secured from below in a parking lot, thereby controlling the thermal elements in the parked carrier to control the cooling time and reduce the risk of temperature induced material stresses in the part.

[0044] Once the build chamber 11 has cooled sufficiently, it is ready to be unpacked at the unpacking station 13. When an unpacking slot on the unpacking table at the unpacking station 13 becomes available, the build chamber 11 is transferred to the unpacking station 13. At the unpacking station 13, the carrier is secured to the unpacking table from below in essentially the same manner as the parking lot at the build chamber deposit station 15. In contrast to the build chamber deposit station 15, the unpacking table is located in a sealed unpacking chamber to prevent the escape of raw material powder. Once the carrier is secured to the unpacking table, the peripheral side walls, including the lid, are moved upwards to "pull away" from the build. The remaining unmelted and unsintered raw material powder around the build then falls and flows into a receiving vessel at the bottom of the unpacking station 13. The unpacking table may be rocked, vibrated, and / or rotated in the unpacking chamber to remove as much of the remaining unmelted and unsintered raw material powder from the build as possible. It should be noted that the bottom layer of the feature is preferably fused / sintered to the substrate plate such that the feature is integrally connected to the substrate plate which is part of the carrier.

[0045] After unpacking the build chamber 11, the peripheral side walls including the lid may be replaced on the carrier to enable transport by the transport system 9 and to protect the model during transport. When the build chamber 11 leaves the unpacking station 13, the build chamber 11 is disassembled again and the separation plate is separated from the carrier in order to remove the model for further external conventional processing such as sandblasting, milling, heating, autoclaving, galvanizing, coating, etc.

[0046] The emptied build chamber 11 can be reused and reassembled for the next complete production cycle of the additive manufacturing facility 1. The only part of the build chamber 11 that needs to be replaced per production cycle is the substrate plate, which needs to be mounted on a carrier. Individual, some or all build jobs may be performed as so-called "support-free" build jobs. This means that they are manufactured in such a way that the builds are not connected to the substrate plate, they "float" on the raw material powder. In this case, the substrate plate does not need to be replaced and / or may not be used. When performed without a substrate plate, the build chamber 11 may have a specific design, in particular a carrier. Support-free build jobs may also require the use of a different unpacking station, for example an unpacking station including a build gripper and / or a sieve, in particular a vibrating sieve, in order not to dispose of the builds together with the residual powder. The resource management system may take into account the necessary unpacking requirements of the individual build jobs.

[0047] For the coordinated management of the production cycle of the additive manufacturing facility 1 having multiple build chambers 11 and multiple additive manufacturing machines 3 in parallel, the additive manufacturing facility 1 further comprises a resource management system (not visible in Figs. 1 and 2) in the form of a software or application implemented in a programmable logic controller (PLC), an industrial PC (IPC), a server or another type of computing device for controlling the supply system 7 of the additive manufacturing facility 1. Input and output options of the resource management system may be displayed in the form of a dashboard (see Fig. 3) on one of the displays 25 and / or on the display of another stationary computing device or on the display of a mobile computing device, for example a tablet or a smartphone. The dashboard may be implemented as a web-based application viewable by using a conventional internet browser application. In terms of hardware, the resource management system comprises a control unit configured to receive signals indicative of a requirement for resource materials and / or resource items of any of the multiple additive manufacturing machines 3. The control unit is further configured to schedule the supply of requested resource materials, e.g. raw material powder, common laser light, shielding gas, and / or the supply of resource items, e.g. build chamber 11, transfer slots, cooling slots, warming slots, unpacking slots, according to a predefined prioritization scheme to resolve competing requests. Parameters or settings of the applied prioritization scheme may be set by the operation staff by using the displayed dashboard. The control unit may be configured to communicate requests, status, error messages, sensor readings, or any other monitoring information displayed to the operation staff on the dashboard.

[0048] FIG. 3 shows an example of a dashboard 27 displayed to the operating staff on any of the multiple displays 25 and / or the display of another fixed or mobile computing device. The dashboard 27 includes overview information on the status of the unpacking station 13, referred to as "SLM® PRS Powder Removal Station", the status of the build chamber depot station 15, referred to as "SLM® BCM Build Cylinder Magazine", and the status of the individual additive manufacturing machines 3, referred to as "SLM® 800M1-M5". The build chamber 11 is referred to as "build cylinder". The dashboard may include graphical status representations for the individual stations and individual machines, e.g. in the form of a color code or in the form of a traffic light. In particular, some or all of the graphical status representations may correspond to physical status representations, e.g. traffic lights, on the stations 13, 15 and machines 3 (e.g. traffic lights).

[0049] As can be seen from the dashboard 27, here all additive manufacturing machines M1-M5 are of the same type "SLM® 800", which use four lasers simultaneously during a build job with a powder bed size of 500 x 280 mm. The height of the build chamber 11 is 850 mm. The build rate is 170 cm 3 / h or more. In the situation shown as an example in FIG. 3, a build job is currently in progress on machines M2 and M3, while a build job has been finished on machines M1, M4 and M5. The build chambers 11 of machines M1, M4 and M5 hold the manufactured objects inside and are ready to be moved to the build chamber depot station 15 for cooling. The operating staff can now trigger a request for a cooling slot, for example by pressing the respective request button 27 on the touch screen of a tablet displaying the dashboard 29. Alternatively, the resource management system may automatically trigger the request and schedule the execution. Scheduling the execution is necessary in case of conflicting requests. For example, the build chamber depot station 15 (SLM® BCM build cylinder magazine) currently has only one empty slot available for an additional cooling process. The resource management system may prioritize moving one of the build chambers 11 of machines M1, M4, M5, for example the build chamber of machine M1, to the empty slot in the build chamber depot station 15.

[0050] The resource management system then has two options in principle to allocate the next slot of the transport system 9, which can only transport one build chamber 11 at a time. The first option is to move the build chamber 11 in the build chamber depot station 15 that is ready for unpacking to the unpack station 13 ("SLM® PRS Powder Removal Station") in order to free up another slot in the build chamber depot station 15. The second option is to move the warmed build chamber 11 in the build chamber depot station 15 that is ready to be allocated to the machine M1 that is free at the time (no build chamber). The second option is more efficient, since the first option would delay the start of a new build job on the machine M1. The decision-making process, e.g. for the transport slot in this case, is predetermined by a prioritization scheme that is applied to resolve competing requests.

[0051] Moving the build chamber to machine M1 moves the build chambers 11 in the build chamber depot station 15 that are ready for unpacking to the unpack station 13 because none of the build chambers 11 in the build chamber depot station 15 are fully warmed up and ready to be assigned to a new build job. Then, two cooling slots in the build chamber depot station 15 are freed for the build chambers 11 of machines M4 and M5, and then these build chambers 11 are moved to the build chamber depot station 15 accordingly.

[0052] The resource management system also manages and displays the supply and distribution of raw material powder. In the situation shown in FIG. 3, machines M1, M4 and M5 have full raw material powder buffers and currently have no requests for the raw material powder supply. However, machines M2 and M3 have competing requests for the supply of raw material powder because they have low fill levels or empty raw material powder buffers. The supply system 7 may only be able to supply raw material powder to one machine at a time. The raw material powder buffer of machine M3 is currently filling as indicated by "filling..." in the status display. If it is predicted that the current supply shortage of machine M2 will lead to an interruption of the ongoing build job at machine M2, the resource management system may decide to stop the filling process of machine M3 and start filling machine M2 again, thereby preventing costly job interruptions. If it is then predicted that the current supply shortage of machine M3 will lead to an interruption of the ongoing build job at machine M3, the resource management system may decide to stop the filling process of machine M2 and start filling machine M3 again.

[0053] FIG. 4 shows the build chamber deposit station 15 in more detail. As shown in FIG. 4, the build chamber deposit station 15 includes six parking lots 31 and can accommodate six build chambers 11 at a time. The build chambers 11 can be automatically loaded into the parking lots 31. The build chamber deposit station 15 is connected to a transport system 9 for receiving the build chambers 11 and for sending the build chambers 11 out. When the build chambers 11 are loaded into the parking lots 31, the control unit can control the heating elements in the carriers, i.e., bottom plate packages, of the build chambers 11. Each parking lot 31 includes a shielding gas supply 33 to provide sufficient shielding gas atmosphere from above during longer build chamber 11 cooling, warming and / or parking periods. Nitrogen or argon can be used as the shielding gas, for example.

[0054] FIG. 5 shows another example of an additive manufacturing facility 1, which includes four different additive manufacturing machines 3, labeled M1, M2, M3 and M4. A centralized common shielding gas source 35 is provided for all additive manufacturing machines 3 and all stations 13, 15. The shielding gas is circulated in a circulation piping system to be supplied to all machines 3 via multiple shielding gas supplies 36 and is filtered in a common filter unit 37. Additional filters 38 with the same or different efficiency may be provided in the individual additive manufacturing machines 3, i.e. a large filter unit 38 in machines M1 and M4 and a small filter unit 38 in M3. The common filter unit 37 and the individual filter units 38 may include multiple filters, in particular for filtering different material compositions. It is also possible that more than one shielding gas circuit is used. In particular, one gas circuit may be used for each raw material composition, thereby preventing a critical mixture of materials in the filters. The resource management system 39, including a control unit 41, is connected wirelessly or by wire to the internal control module 43 of each machine 3. The control unit 41 of the resource management system 39 is configured for the coordinated management of the supply systems 7 of the additive manufacturing facility 1. There are several options for how the communication between the resource management system 39 and the control module 43 is implemented. In a first option, the resource management system 39 may receive unprocessed data and control signals from the control module 43 for the resource management system 39 to interpret and evaluate. In a second option, the control module 43 processes and evaluates those data and sensor signals separately and sends only requests for resource materials and / or resource items to the resource management system 39. In a third option, which is preferred, the control module 43 processes and forwards those data and sensor signals separately to the resource management system 39 for the resource management system 39 to evaluate and prioritize.Here, the supply system 7 includes a transport system 9 for transporting the build chambers 11, a build chamber depot station 15 with four parking lots 31, an unpacking station 13 with one unpacking table, a terminal hub 45 for transporting the objects and receiving new build chambers 11 or carriers, a laser supply system 47, and a common raw material powder supply 17 for supplying two different types of raw material powder. The two types of raw material powder may differ from each other in material type and / or particle size. The material type may be any type of metal, ceramic, plastic and / or mineral. Thereby, different materials can be used in one build job. For example, objects containing two different materials can be produced. As another example, plastics may be used as a relatively cheap and light filler or bridging material that can be burned off later, or ceramics may be used as a coating.

[0055] The four machines 3 of the additive manufacturing facility 1 shown as an example in FIG. 5 differ from each other in certain aspects in order to show the versatility of the additive manufacturing facility 1. The machine M1 includes four laser optics 49 on top of the process chamber 51 and two internal laser light sources 53. The machine M1 further includes one raw material powder buffer 55 on the side of the process chamber 51. A feeder 57 arranged below the raw material powder buffer 55 can be filled with raw material powder from the raw material powder buffer 55. The feeder 57 is horizontally movable and can deposit and scrape off layers of raw material powder on a carrier of the build chamber 11 arranged below the process chamber 51. The excess raw material powder scraped off after the deposition of each layer is pushed by the feeder 57 into a receiving container 59. The excess raw material powder is recycled directly to the raw material powder buffer 55 during a build job via an internal recycling system 61.

[0056] A laser delivery system 47 is used to provide laser light for machines M2, M3 and M4, of which only machine M3 includes an additional internal laser light source 53. The laser light of one or more common laser sources of the laser delivery system 47 is guided to machines M2, M3 and M4 by a light guiding system 65, e.g. an optical fiber line. The laser delivery system 47 may provide different types of laser light, differing in wavelength, power, polarization, pulsation and / or amplitude profile.

[0057] The machine M2 is not connected to a common raw material powder supply 17 but includes an exchangeable raw material powder cartridge 67 from which the feeder 57 is filled for the layer formation process. Excess raw material powder is either sucked off (not shown) or captured in an exchangeable raw material powder bin (not shown). The raw material powder cartridge 67 and / or the raw material powder bin may use the same transport system 9 as the build chamber 11. In particular, the raw material powder cartridge 67 and / or the raw material powder bin may be designed as the build chamber.

[0058] The machines M3 and M4 are capable of processing two different kinds of raw material powder. Thus, the machines M3 and M4 each include two raw material powder buffers 55 for buffering the two different raw material powders separately. However, the excess raw material powder consists of a mixture of the two kinds of raw material powder. The machine M3 includes an internal recycling system 61 capable of at least partially separating the two components of the excess raw material powder to replenish the two raw material powder buffers 55. The internal recycling system 61 may be implemented to recycle all the excess raw material powder. In an alternative embodiment, the internal recycling system 61 may be implemented to recycle one component of the excess raw material powder in a certain proportion, and the remainder of the excess material powder may be separated in a common recycling unit 68. In a further alternative embodiment, the internal recycling system 61 may be implemented to recycle a certain proportion of each component of the excess raw material powder, and the remainder of the excess material powder may be separated in a common recycling unit 68. Here, the common recycling unit 68 is provided to separate the two components of the excess raw material powder of the machines M3 and M4. A common recycling unit 68 supplies two raw material powder tanks 69 for the separate storage of the two different raw material powders. These raw material powder tanks 69 are used to replenish the raw material powder buffers 55 of machines M1, M3 and M4 with new and / or recycled raw material powder of the appropriate type via the vacuum piping system 19.

[0059] As described above in relation to the embodiment shown in Figures 1-4, the resource management system 39 having the control unit 41 is configured to receive signals indicative of requests for resource materials and / or resource items of any of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines from manual operating staff input to the dashboard 27 and / or automatically triggered by sensor detection or measurement. For example, the raw material powder buffer 55 may include a fill level detector indicating a request for replenishment. The control unit 41 is further configured to schedule the supply of the requested resource materials and / or resource items according to a predetermined prioritization scheme to resolve conflicting requests, as described above. [Explanation of symbols]

[0060] 1 Additive Manufacturing Facility 3 Additive manufacturing machine 5. Platform 7. Supply System 9. Transport System 11 Build Chamber 13. Unpacking Station 15 Build Chamber Depot Station 17 Common raw material powder supply section 19 Vacuum piping system 21. Windows 23 Control terminal 25 Display 27 Request button 29 Dashboard 31 Parking Lot 33 Shielding gas supply section 35 Common Shielding Gas Sources 36 Shielding gas supply section 37 Common Filter Unit 38 Individual Filter Units 39 Resource Management System 41 Control Unit 43 Internal Control Module 45 Transport Hub 47 Laser Supply System 49 Laser Optical Elements 51 Process Chamber 53 Internal laser light source 55 Raw Material Powder Buffer 57 Feeder 59 Receptacle 61 Internal raw material powder recycling system 65 Light Guiding System 67 Raw Material Powder Cartridge 68 Common raw material powder recycling system 69 Raw material powder tank

Claims

1. 1. A resource management system (39) for managing a supply of resource materials and / or resource items to at least two of a plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) for additive manufacturing, the resource management system (39) comprising: a control unit (41) configured to receive a signal indicative of a request for resource materials and / or resource items of any of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3), the control unit (41) being configured to schedule the supply of the requested resource materials and / or resource items according to a predefined prioritization scheme for prioritizing the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) to resolve conflicts in requests, the prioritization of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) according to the prioritization scheme being based on a ranking of a current severity of an impact of a shortage of supply of the requested resource materials and / or resource items in a current operating state of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3), and the resource management system (39) further comprising a supply system (7) for supplying at least one type of requested resource material and / or resource item to the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) in a manner scheduled by the control unit (41).

2. 2. The resource management system (39) of claim 1, wherein the supply system (7) is configured to supply at least one type of requested resource material and / or resource item to a number of additive manufacturing machines that is less than the total number of additive manufacturing machines at a time.

3. A resource management system (39) as described in claim 1, wherein the supply system (7) is configured to supply at least one type of requested resource material and / or resource item to only one of the multiple additive manufacturing machines (3) at a time.

4. The control unit (41) - if the ongoing supply to the first additive manufacturing machine (3) is not stopped, a supply shortage to the second additive manufacturing machine (3) is unavoidable, and - a current severity rank for a shortage of supply to the second additive manufacturing machine is above a first predetermined severity threshold; and - a current severity rank for a shortage of supply to the first additive manufacturing machine is below a second predetermined severity threshold; configured to stop an ongoing supply to the first one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) in order to start a supply to the second one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) under a cumulative condition of A resource management system (39) according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

5. A resource management system (39) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the resource material is at least one raw material powder which is irradiated with electromagnetic radiation or particle radiation in an additive manufacturing process in an additive manufacturing machine (3), and the resource item is a build chamber (11) having a carrier on which a three-dimensional object can be produced from the at least one raw material powder by additive manufacturing in the additive manufacturing machine (3).

6. The resource management system (39) according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the resource material is at least two raw material powders which are irradiated with electromagnetic radiation or particle radiation in an additive manufacturing process in an additive manufacturing machine (3), the at least two raw material powders comprising a first raw material powder and a second raw material powder, the first raw material powder and the second raw material powder differing from each other in terms of material type and / or particle size, and a supply system (7) configured to supply the first raw material powder and the second raw material powder separately to the additive manufacturing machine (3).

7. The resource management system (39) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising a laser supply system (47) for supplying laser light generated by the one or more laser light sources to the additive manufacturing machine (3) in a manner scheduled by the control unit (41).

8. a plurality of at least two additive manufacturing machines (3) for the parallel additive manufacturing of three-dimensional structures, - a resource management system (39) according to any one of claims 1 to 7 for managing the supply of resource materials and / or resource items to said at least two plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3); an additive manufacturing facility (1).

9. An additive manufacturing facility (1) as described in claim 8, further comprising a powder removal station (13) for removing residual raw material powder from an additively manufactured three-dimensional object.

10. The resource material is at least one raw material powder which is irradiated with electromagnetic or particle radiation in an additive manufacturing process in an additive manufacturing machine (3), the resource item is a build chamber (11) having a carrier on which a three-dimensional object can be produced from the at least one raw material powder by additive manufacturing in the additive manufacturing machine (3), 10. The additive manufacturing facility (1) according to claim 8 or 9, further comprising a build chamber storage station (15) for storing the build chamber (11), the build chamber storage station (15) being usable for pre- and / or post-processing of the build chamber (11).

11. 11. The additive manufacturing facility (1) according to any one of claims 8 to 10, wherein at least one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) comprises an internal raw material powder recycling system (61), the internal raw material powder recycling system (61) being configured to directly recycle residual raw material powder during an ongoing manufacturing process.

12. The additive manufacturing facility (1) according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein at least one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) comprises at least one raw material powder buffer (55) for buffering raw material powder, said at least one raw material powder buffer (55) comprising a fill level detector configured to trigger a signal indicative of a request for raw material powder as resource material.

13. 13. The additive manufacturing facility (1) according to claim 12, wherein the at least one raw material powder buffer (55) is configured to receive recycled residual raw material powder directly during an ongoing building process.

14. 1. A method for managing the supply of resource materials and / or resource items to at least two multiple additive manufacturing machines (3) for additive manufacturing, comprising: receiving a signal indicative of a request for resource material and / or resource items of any of a plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3); and scheduling the supply of requested resource materials and / or resource items according to a predefined prioritization scheme for prioritizing the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) to resolve competing demands, the prioritization of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) according to said prioritization scheme being based on a current severity ranking of the impact of a shortage of supply of the requested resource materials and / or resource items in a current operating state of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3); A method comprising:

15. 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising triggering a signal indicating a demand for resource materials and / or resource items either manually by input of a request by operating staff or automatically based on sensor detection or measurement.

16. Scheduling the supply includes: - if the ongoing supply to the first additive manufacturing machine (3) is not stopped, a shortage of supply to the second additive manufacturing machine (3) is unavoidable; and a current severity rank for a shortage of supply to the second additive manufacturing machine (3) is above a first predetermined severity threshold; and a current severity rank for a shortage of supply to the first additive manufacturing machine (3) being below a second predetermined severity threshold; stopping an ongoing supply to the first one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) to start a supply to the second one of the plurality of additive manufacturing machines (3) under a cumulative condition of 16. The method according to claim 14 or 15.

17. The method of any one of claims 14 to 16, further comprising directly recycling the residual raw material powder into the ongoing building process.

18. - buffering raw material powder for at least one additive manufacturing machine (3) in a raw material powder buffer (55) of said at least one additive manufacturing machine; - monitoring the filling level of said raw material powder buffer (55), and - triggering a signal indicating the requirement of said at least one additive manufacturing machine (3) for raw material powder as resource material; The method of any one of claims 14 to 17, further comprising:

19. 20. The method of claim 18, further comprising recycling residual raw material powder directly into an associated raw material powder buffer (55) during an ongoing building process of the at least one additive manufacturing machine (3).

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