General Electric Company
OMNIDIRECTIONAL RECOATER

Abstract:

The present disclosure generally relates to methods and apparatuses (200) for additive manufacturing with improved powder (702) distribution capabilities. One aspect involves a mobile build unit (700) that can be moved around in two to three dimensions by a positioning system, to build separate portions of an object, such as a large object. The mobile build unit (700) may be used with an energy directing device (712) that directs irradiation onto a powder (702) layer. In the case of laser irradiation, the mobile build unit (700) may be used with a gasflow device (713A, 713B) that provides laminar gas flow to a laminar flow zone (714) above the layer of powder (703). The mobile build unit (700) of the present disclosure also has a recoater (705) concentrically surrounding a mobile build area, the re-coater (705) allowing the mobile build unit (700) to selectively deposit particular quantities of powder (702) in specific locations over a work surface in order to build large, high quality, high precision objects.