阅读说明：本技术 用于增材制造的图案化光的开关站射束路由 (Switchyard beam routing of patterned light for additive manufacturing ) 是由 詹姆斯·A·德姆斯 弗朗西斯·L·利尔德 埃里克·图姆尔 于 2018-05-11 设计创作，主要内容包括：一种用于增材制造的方法和装置,其涉及高效率、能量束图案化和射束操控以有效且高效地利用源能量。在一个实施例中,不想要的光的回收和再利用包括由一个或更多个光阀产生的多个光图案的源,其中多个光图案中的至少一个光图案由被拒斥的图案化光形成。图像中继装置被用于引导多个光图案,以及射束路由系统接收多个光图案,并分别将它们引导向粉末床上的限定区域。(A method and apparatus for additive manufacturing that involves high efficiency, energy beam patterning and beam steering to efficiently and effectively utilize source energy. In one embodiment, the recycling and reuse of unwanted light includes a source of a plurality of light patterns generated by one or more light valves, wherein at least one of the plurality of light patterns is formed by rejected patterned light. An image relay device is used to direct the plurality of light patterns, and a beam routing system receives the plurality of light patterns and directs them to respective defined areas on the powder bed.)

1. A switchyard beam routing system for additive manufacturing, the switchyard beam routing system comprising:

an energy beam;

a beam patterning unit for generating a two-dimensional patterned energy beam from the energy beam;

a plurality of energy switching units for directing a two-dimensional patterned energy beam;

a plurality of energy manipulation units for receiving and directing the two-dimensional patterned energy beam, an

At least one powder bed for receiving at least a portion of the directed two-dimensional patterned energy beam from at least one of the plurality of energy manipulation units.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the two-dimensional patterned energy beam retains greater than 50% of an angular power density and 75% of a spatial etendue of a two-dimensional patterned image generated at the beam patterning unit and received at the at least one powder bed.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of energy switching cells is capable of directing the two-dimensional patterned energy beam to at least two energy switching cells forming a switching hierarchy.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of energy switch cells are arranged in a switch hierarchy, and wherein at least two of the plurality of energy switch cells are capable of directing a two-dimensional patterned energy beam therebetween.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the energy beam comprises a laser beam, wherein the beam patterning unit comprises at least one light valve configured to apply a first positive pattern passed through the light valve and a second negative pattern consisting of laser light rejected by the light valve, wherein the energy switching unit directs a two-dimensional patterned laser beam, and wherein the plurality of energy manipulation units receive the two-dimensional patterned laser beam.

6. A switchyard beam routing system comprising:

an energy beam;

a beam patterning unit for generating a two-dimensional patterned energy beam from the energy beam;

a plurality of energy switching cells for directing a two-dimensional patterned energy beam, wherein at least one energy switching cell of the plurality of energy switching cells is capable of directing a two-dimensional patterned energy beam to at least two energy switching cells forming a switching hierarchy.

7. The switchyard beam routing system of claim 6, wherein at least two of the plurality of energy switching cells are capable of directing a two-dimensional patterned energy beam therebetween.

8. The switchyard beam routing system of claim 6, further comprising a plurality of energy manipulation units for receiving and directing the two-dimensional patterned energy beam, an

At least one powder bed for receiving at least a portion of the directed two-dimensional patterned energy beam from at least one of the plurality of energy manipulation units.

9. The switchyard beam routing system of claim 6, further comprising a plurality of energy manipulation units for receiving and directing the two-dimensional patterned energy beam, and wherein at least one of the energy manipulation units further comprises a movable mirror.

10. The switchyard beam routing system of claim 6, wherein the energy beam comprises a laser beam, wherein the beam patterning unit comprises at least one light valve configured to apply a first positive pattern passed through the light valve and a second negative pattern consisting of laser light rejected by the light valve, and wherein the energy switching unit directs the two-dimensional patterned laser beam.

11. A switchyard light recovery system comprising:

one or more light sources configured to emit one or more light beams;

a light valve configured to apply a first positive pattern of light passed through the light valve and a second negative pattern of light rejected by the light valve to one or more received light beams;

a plurality of beam switch units arranged as at least one image relay device to receive and direct at least one of the first positive light pattern and the second negative light pattern.

12. The switchyard light recovery system of claim 11, wherein at least some of the light patterns relayed by at least some of the plurality of beam switch units are directed to a powder bed.

13. The switchyard light recovery system of claim 11, wherein at least one of light pattern intensity, light pattern orientation, and light pattern size is transformed.

14. The switchyard light recovery system of claim 11, wherein the first positive light pattern and the second negative light pattern are at least partially combined.

15. The switchyard light recovery system of claim 11, wherein at least some of the plurality of beam switching cells are arranged in a switching hierarchy.

16. The switchyard light recovery system of claim 11, wherein at least some of the plurality of beam switching cells are arranged in a binary tree switch hierarchy.

17. The switchyard light recovery system of claim 11, further comprising:

a plurality of light manipulation units to receive and direct the patterned light beam.

18. The switchyard light recovery system of claim 17, wherein at least one of the plurality of light manipulation units is a movable mirror.

19. A method for distributing beam energy to a predetermined area, comprising the steps of:

dividing the printing object into J slices by calculation, wherein J is 1 to J;

determining all pixels in each tile to be printed by the two-dimensional energy beam;

establishing a sequence for printing K tiles;

determining a beam energy pattern to create each tile;

printing the K tiles in slice J and repeating for all J slices; and

the patterned beam energy is directed to print at least one tile with recovered beam energy from the switch station beam system.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein at least some of the beam energy distributed to the predetermined area is relayed to a patch on the powder bed.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the beam energy comprises light, and the beam energy patterning is capable of adjusting at least one of light pattern intensity, light pattern orientation, and light pattern size.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein at least some of the patterned beam energy is relayed to a tile on a powder bed by at least some of a plurality of beam switch units.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein at least some of the plurality of beam switch cells are arranged in a switching hierarchy.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein at least some of the plurality of beam switch cells are arranged in a binary tree switch hierarchy.

25. A method for temporally distributing available energy beams for additive printing, comprising the steps of:

defining a series of time steps t listing possible print locations and tiles;

distributing the available light among the eligible print locations and tiles; and

the switchyard system is configured to direct the allocated available energy beams to qualified printing locations and tiles.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein at least some of the beam energy distributed to the predetermined area is relayed to a patch on the powder bed.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the beam energy comprises light, and the beam energy patterning is capable of adjusting at least one of light pattern intensity, light pattern orientation, and light pattern size.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein at least some of the beam energy is relayed to a patch on the powder bed by at least some of the plurality of beam switch units.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein at least some of the plurality of beam switch cells are arranged in a switching hierarchy.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein at least some of the plurality of beam switch cells are arranged in a binary tree switch hierarchy.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to optics for additive manufacturing and, more particularly, to optical systems including a switch-station beam routing subsystem capable of directing one or more patterned beams.

Background

Complex systems for redirecting laser light have been used in many high power applications. For example, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory supports National ignition facilities capable of redirecting high power laser beams to targets. The beam housing redirects multiple incident laser beams to the top and bottom of the end station. After the laser beams travel through the laser chamber, they enter a beam housing system with turning mirrors that redirect the beams to the upper and lower hemispheres of the target chamber. The manual system converts the parallel laser beam layout into a spherical configuration of the target chamber. In operation, the turning mirror directs a plurality of laser beams along radial lines into the target chamber to converge on the target.

The laser-based additive manufacturing system may also include light redirection. For example, one type of diode laser additive manufacturing includes combining multiple beams into a single beam, and then separating the beams by splitting the light source into a negative patterned image and a positive patterned image. Typically, one patterned beam image is used to build the part and the other beam image is discarded into the beam dump. Such patterns may be created by using liquid crystal-based light valves that allow for spatial modulation of transmitted or reflected light by rotating the polarization state of the electromagnetic wave. A typical example is a polarized light "drive beam" passing through a liquid crystal filled light valve which then spatially imprints (imprints) a pattern in the polarization space onto the drive beam. The desired polarization state of the light is allowed to continue to the rest of the optical system and the undesired state is rejected and discarded to a beam dump or other energy rejection device.

Separating, combining, and routing one or more such patterned beams or unpatterned beams can be complex. Systems that can efficiently route and direct patterned beams or unpatterned beams can simplify the use of multiple powder beds, allow full or partial overlap of beams, or limit energy loss due to rejected or unwanted beam patterns.