US 11,717,890 B2
Additive manufacturing apparatus
Katsutaka Muranaka, Kanagawa (JP)
Assigned to Sodick Co., Ltd., Kanagawa (JP)
Filed by Sodick Co., Ltd., Kanagawa (JP)
Filed on May 22, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/750,388.
Claims priority of application No. 2021-116288 (JP), filed on Jul. 14, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0013567 A1, Jan. 19, 2023
Int. Cl. B22F 10/20 (2021.01); B22F 3/10 (2006.01); B22F 12/50 (2021.01); B22F 12/41 (2021.01); B33Y 30/00 (2015.01); B22F 12/70 (2021.01); B22F 12/49 (2021.01)
CPC B22F 10/20 (2021.01) [B22F 3/1003 (2013.01); B22F 12/41 (2021.01); B22F 12/50 (2021.01); B22F 12/70 (2021.01); B33Y 30/00 (2014.12); B22F 12/49 (2021.01); B22F 2201/10 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An additive manufacturing apparatus comprising:
a chamber, comprising a front plate on which an opening is formed, and covering a build region being a region where a desired three-dimensional object is formed;
a door, provided at the opening and configured to be openable and closable;
an irradiator, provided above the chamber and irradiating a material layer formed in the build region with a laser beam or an electron beam to form a solidified layer;
a gas supplier, supplying an inert gas to the chamber; and
a gas discharger, discharging the inert gas from the chamber, wherein
the gas supplier comprises:
a middle nozzle, provided so as to cross the opening when the door is closed, and in which a middle blowout port that blows out the inert gas is formed; and
a lower nozzle, provided below the middle nozzle on a side of the front plate inside the chamber, and in which a lower blowout port that blows out the inert gas is formed, and
the middle nozzle has one end swingably supported on the front plate, and swings independently of opening and closing of the door.