Adaptive Build Platform for Additive Manufacturing Cantilevers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing additive manufacturing systems face challenges in efficiently manufacturing complex objects with cantilevered parts, as they require the creation and removal of supporting pillars, increasing complexity, material usage, and costs.
Innovation Solution
An additive manufacturing system with a build platform that has an impermeable surface, allowing for independent movement of specific points to adapt the surface shape in real-time, thereby eliminating the need for sacrificial pillars by directly supporting cantilevered parts during the manufacturing process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If traditional additive manufacturing systems use fixed build platforms with sacrificial pillars to support cantilevered parts, then the structural stability during manufacturing is maintained, but the device complexity and material usage increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The build platform surface is transformed from a fixed, static structure to a dynamic, adaptable one. The surface can change its shape and topology during the manufacturing process to provide support exactly where needed, eliminating the requirement for permanent sacrificial pillars. This dynamic adaptation reduces manufacturing complexity while maintaining structural stability throughout the build process.
Solution Approach 2:
The physical parameters of the build platform surface are changed during manufacturing. By modifying the surface shape, height, and topology in real-time, the system adapts to support cantilevered parts without requiring additional sacrificial structures. This parameter change approach maintains stability while reducing the complexity associated with pillar creation and removal.
2Adaptability or versatility
If sacrificial pillars are created to support cantilevered parts, then the object can be manufactured with complex geometries, but the quantity of material used increases
Solution Approach 1:
The build platform surface dynamically adapts its shape to support cantilevered parts during manufacturing, eliminating the need for sacrificial pillars. This allows complex geometries to be manufactured while minimizing material usage, as the support structure is temporary and adaptive rather than permanent and consumable.
Solution Approach 2:
The build platform itself provides the support function that previously required separate sacrificial pillars. By modifying its own surface topology, the platform serves dual purposes: supporting the object during manufacturing and defining the final object geometry, thereby eliminating wasted material in the form of sacrificial structures.
3Adaptability or versatility
If sacrificial pillars are created and subsequently removed, then cantilevered parts can be manufactured, but the manufacturing time and process duration increase
Solution Approach 1:
The build platform surface dynamically changes shape during manufacturing to provide support, eliminating the need for post-manufacturing removal of sacrificial pillars. This reduces the total manufacturing time by removing the additional steps of pillar creation and removal, while maintaining the capability to manufacture cantilevered parts.
Solution Approach 2:
The unnecessary step of creating and removing sacrificial pillars is extracted from the manufacturing process. By using a dynamic build platform surface that provides support intrinsically, the process eliminates the time-consuming cycles of pillar addition and removal, reducing overall manufacturing time while maintaining full manufacturing capability.
4Ease of manufacture
If the build platform surface is modified to support cantilevered parts directly, then the manufacturing process is simplified, but the control system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The build platform surface is made dynamic and adaptable, allowing it to change shape during manufacturing to provide support where needed. This simplifies the manufacturing process by eliminating sacrificial pillars, while the control system complexity is managed through software-based surface topology control that adapts to the specific manufacturing requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The surface parameters of the build platform are changed dynamically during manufacturing to provide support. This approach simplifies the overall manufacturing process by integrating the support function into the platform itself, while the control system manages parameter changes through coordinated actuation of the platform's adaptive surface.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2-a~2-c
Figure 3-a~3-c
AI summary
An additive manufacturing system (100) and a method for additively manufacturing an object. The additive manufacturing system comprises a build platform (101). A surface (101-a) of the build platform is configured to support an object being manufactured. The additive manufacturing system also comprises a manufacturing module (102) configured to create layers of the object. The surface of the build platform is impermeable, and the additive manufacturing system is configured to move a point of a surface of the build platform independently of other points of the surface during the manufacturing of the object.