FEA Lattice for Additive Manufacturing Physical Properties
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Solution Overview
Problem
Additive manufacturing lacks tools for simulating the physical properties of printed parts, leading to a time-consuming process of testing different orientations and fill patterns to achieve desired specifications.
Innovation Solution
The system utilizes the bind sites and connection directionality of the physical lattice to create a finite element analysis (FEA) lattice for simulating the macro physical properties of the part, using tabulated repeatable bind site values and encoding micro properties into equations or approximators.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If physical testing of different orientations and fill patterns is performed to achieve desired specifications, then manufacturing precision is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to time-consuming iterative testing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing virtual testing through FEA simulation before actual physical manufacturing. The system creates a digital twin of the additive manufacturing process, allowing designers to evaluate different orientations, fill patterns, and process parameters virtually to determine optimal settings before committing to physical production, thereby eliminating iterative physical testing
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies copying by creating a virtual replica (digital twin) of the physical additive manufacturing process. This digital model includes virtual bind sites, physical lattice structures, and material properties that mirror the actual manufacturing process, enabling virtual experimentation and prediction of physical properties without repeated physical prototyping
2Measurement precision
If detailed physical lattice modeling is created to predict macro physical properties, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity worsens due to the complexity of FEA lattice creation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the continuous physical lattice into discrete bind sites and structural elements that can be individually modeled and analyzed. The FEA lattice is created by segmenting the build volume into finite elements that correspond to the additive manufacturing lattice structure, allowing detailed local analysis while maintaining computational efficiency through systematic discretization
Data Source
AI summary
The system described assumes that the physical properties of the bind sites will be sufficiently repeatable to be tabulated based on a limited set of control constraints: filament material, temperature of the print head, feed rate, temperature of the substrate, and filament orientations at the bind site, etc. The main idea of this system is to utilize the bind sites and the connection and directionality of the threads as a lattice that can then be fed into a finite element analysis (FEA) algorithm for simulation in order to extract the macro physical properties of the part being produced. These repeatable bind site tabulated values can then be used to provide the cell properties for the FEA. The micro properties of the bind site can also be encoded into explicit equations, neural networks or other approximators.