ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,459,038, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to HITACHI LTD. (Tokyo).
"Additive manufacturing method" was invented by Hirotsugu Kawanaka (Tokyo), Noboru Saito (Tokyo) and Shinji Matsushita (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present disclosure provides an additive manufacturing method by which a uniform powder bed can be formed even when the interior of a chamber is depressurized and a powder bed is formed on a stage as the stage is preheated and an inert gas is supplied. An additive manufacturing method for a shaped object S includes forming a powder bed PB on a stage 51 in a chamber 10, and fusing the powder bed PB by laser emission. A...