General Electric Company
HYBRID SUPPORT STRUCTURES FOR ADDITIVELY PRINTED PARTS

Abstract:

A method, medium, and system to receive a specification defining a model of a part to be produced by an additive manufacturing (AM) process; execute an AM simulation on the model of the part to determine a prediction of thermal distortions to the part; execute a topology optimization (TO) to create TO supports that counteract the predicted thermal distortions; generate at least one rule-based support based on a geometry of the part to interface with the part at one or more regions other than the TO supports; combining the TO supports and the at least one rule-based support to generate a set of hybrid supports; save a record of the set of hybrid supports; and transmit the record of the set of hybrid supports to an AM controller to control an AM system to generate a support structure for an AM production of the part.