Share:

Assistant Professor Xinyi Xiao is granted patent

Dr. Xinyi Xiao is an Assistant Professor at Miami University’s CEC and is in the Mechanical Manufacturing and Engineering Department. Her main research areas are currently in additive manufacturing, computational algorithm development towards novel methods and quantitative analysis toward dual quality control. Xiao started at Miami in Fall of 2020 and was recently granted her second patent.

Xiao helps a lot with the university with outreach activities, with a previous example being when she held a talk and toured with high school girls at Miami. During this event, she gave them an introduction by showing them 3D printing techniques, and immersed them in the world of 3D printing by giving them hands-on experiences with the technology

The patent, titled “Determining build orientation to minimize thermal distortion,” is about finding the optimal width orientation for any given geometry because, especially in the metal additive area, thermal distortion is critical for deciding the part’s functionality and build failure. 

“With this model, we can provide a user an optimal view and an optimal  orientation so that the part has the minimum residual stress that can maintain its shape and functionality,” Xiao said when asked about the details of her latest patent.patent-info

This project was a year in the making, but not without a few challenges. Xiao explained the difficulty she had in finding a surrogate model for the thermal distortion, as it is difficult to use computational methods to predict thermal stress. 

Xiao had another patent granted previously, titled “Automatic Toolpath Generation for Heterogeneous Objects Manufactured by Directed Energy Deposition Additive Manufacturing Process”

Xiao is currently working on finding an industry that is interested in purchasing this patent, so for more details on this project, visit the digital patent.

By Gabby Benedict, CEC Reporter