	US 12,226,958 B2
	Integrated digital thread for additive manufacturing design optimization of lightweight structures
Hongyi Xu, Northville Township, MI (US); Siddharthan Selvasekar, Livermore, CA (US); Ching-Hung Chuang, Northville, MI (US); and Ellen Lee, Ann Arbor, MI (US)
Assigned to Ford Global Technologies, LLC, Dearborn, MI (US)
Filed by Ford Global Technologies, LLC, Dearborn, MI (US)
Filed on Jun. 6, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/833,185.
Application 17/833,185 is a division of application No. 15/817,330, filed on Nov. 20, 2017, granted, now 11,351,732.
Prior Publication US 2022/0297381 A1, Sep. 22, 2022
Int. Cl. B29C 64/386 (2017.01); B29D 24/00 (2006.01); B33Y 10/00 (2015.01); B33Y 50/00 (2015.01); B33Y 80/00 (2015.01)

CPC B29C 64/386 (2017.08) [B29D 24/001 (2013.01); B33Y 10/00 (2014.12); B33Y 50/00 (2014.12); B33Y 80/00 (2014.12)]

20 Claims

1. A part formed by an additive manufacturing process, the part consisting of three regions:

regions of voids;

regions of solid material; and

regions of non-uniform lattice cells, each lattice cell comprising bars,

wherein the regions are spatially distributed throughout the part as a function of load conditions such that the solid material is distributed in regions of first load paths and the non-uniform lattice cells are distributed in regions of second load paths lower in magnitude than the first load paths,

wherein diameters of each bar of a non-uniform lattice cell are sized as a function of at least one of a resolution unit of the additive manufacturing process and part performance requirements, and

wherein the diameters of each bar of the non-uniform lattice cells are classified into clusters, and wherein an average diameter size is assigned to each bar of the non-uniform lattice cells in a same cluster.