Additive Manufacturing Support Structures for Distortion and Material Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
The design of support structures for additively manufactured industrial assets is a complex and time-consuming process, often requiring manual iteration and significant material waste, as existing methods lack efficient and automated solutions to prevent distortion and optimize material usage.
Innovation Solution
An automated support structure creation platform that uses an iterative loop between a build process simulation engine and a topology optimization engine to automatically generate support structure geometry data, minimizing material usage while ensuring acceptable distortion tolerance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If manual trial-and-error design is used for support structures, then design accuracy can be improved through iteration, but design cycle time and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical design iteration with an automated computer-based system that uses simulation and optimization algorithms to generate support structures. The system substitutes human expertise with computational methods including build process simulation, topology optimization, and machine learning models to automatically determine optimal support configurations without manual trial-and-error
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary simulation and analysis before actual manufacturing to predict and prevent distortion issues. By running build process simulations and topology optimizations in advance, the system determines optimal support structures before printing begins, eliminating the need for post-manufacturing measurement and redesign iterations
2Manufacturing precision
If support structures are designed to prevent distortion, then manufacturing quality improves, but material usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts support structure parameters including density, distribution, and geometry based on simulation results and optimization algorithms. By changing these parameters iteratively through topology optimization, the system finds the minimum material configuration that still achieves acceptable distortion control, rather than using uniform or excessive support material
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies support structures with varying local properties rather than uniform support throughout. The system identifies specific regions requiring support based on geometric analysis and simulation, placing supports only where needed with appropriate local density and configuration, minimizing material usage while maintaining distortion control at critical locations
3Manufacturing precision
If expert manual design is used for support structures, then design quality can be improved, but device complexity and operational difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables designers to create optimized support structures without requiring expert knowledge. The automated platform performs simulation, analysis, and optimization independently, allowing any user to generate high-quality support designs by simply inputting basic parameters, eliminating the need for specialized manual design expertise
Data Source
AI summary
An industrial asset item definition data store may contain at least one electronic record defining the industrial asset item. An automated support structure creation platform may include a support structure optimization computer processor. The automated support structure optimization computer processor may be adapted to automatically create support structure geometry data associated with an additive printing process for the industrial asset item. The creation may be performed via an iterative loop between a build process simulation engine and a topology optimization engine.