The Boeing Company
Foil fusion additive manufacturing system and method

Abstract:

An additive manufacturing system includes a foil supply drum, a melting energy source, and a processor. The foil supply drum is configured to be rotated for dispensing a foil sheet over a substrate surface supported by a build element. The melting energy source is configured to direct at least one melting energy beam onto a non-melted region of the foil sheet located over the substrate surface. The processor is configured to execute computable readable program instructions based on a three-dimensional digital definition of the object, and control the melting energy beam to selectively melt at least some of the non-melted region into melted portions forming a material layer of the object onto the substrate surface while separating the melted portions from non-melted portions, and command rotation of the foil supply drum for dispensing the foil sheet during manufacturing of the object in correspondence with the digital definition.