Shaping a body from workpiece powders by selective laser melting, in rapid prototyping, has a sensor at the build-up platform to set the first powder layer at an exact thickness

摘要

To form a shaped body, by selective laser melting a powder material, a sensor (41) is mounted at a build-up platform (22) or base plate, with its sensor plane (54) set to the leveling plane (53) of the leveling unit (42) for the removed powder layer. The platform is moved in relation to the sensor until a sensor signal stops the platform drive (21) in an intermediate position (57). The platform is moved from the intermediate position by a movement path to adjust the layer thickness of the first powder layer and is placed in the start position.