MULTIPLE BEAM ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

摘要

Systems and methods for multiple beam additive manufacturing use multiple beams of light (e.g., laser light) to expose layers of powder material in selected regions until the powder material fuses to form voxels, which form build layers of a three-dimensional structure. The light may be generated from selected light sources and coupled into an array of optical fibers having output ends arranged in an optical head in at least one line such that multiple beams are sequentially directed by the optical head to the same powder region providing multiple beam sequential exposures (e.g., with pre-heating, melting and controlled cool down) to fuse the powder region. The multiple sequential beams may be moved using various techniques (e.g., by moving the optical head) and according to various scan patterns such that a plurality of fused regions form each build layer.