权利要求：
CLAIMS 1. A closed-loop metal powder management method for additive manufacturing, the method comprising the steps of: a) obtaining a virgin metal powder suitable for additive manufacturing, the metal powder being disposed in a closed powder container comprising at least one sensor, tracker, or optical device; b) connecting the powder container to an additive manufacturing system with an automated metal powder transfer system to perform powder transfer in a closed loop, wherein the automated metal powder transfer system is controllable by at least one of a pneumatic or an electronic controller and is adapted to control delivery of a metered amount of metal powder to the additive manufacturing system; c) delivering metal powder from the powder container to the additive manufacturing system; d) operating the additive manufacturing system to form at least one layer of the metal powder over a build plate of the additive manufacturing system; e) consolidating a portion of the at least one metal powder layer, wherein an excess portion of the metal powder layer remains in powder form; f) repeating steps d) and e) at least once; g) transferring the excess metal powder from the additive manufacturing system into the powder container, a second powder container, or an internal powder container; h) adding virgin metal powder to the excess metal powder in the powder container, second powder container, or the internal powder container to form a mixed powder; i) validating a quality of the mixed powder; j) repeating steps b) – i) at least once with the validated mixed powder; k) collecting powder physical transfer data associated with at least one of steps a) - j); and l) storing in a data repository the powder physical transfer data,
wherein the at least one sensor, tracker, or optical device is electronically accessible during each of steps a) – l). 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the least one sensor is adapted to measure at least one of oxygen in the powder container, a temperature in the powder container, humidity in the powder container, pressure in the powder container, color of powder in the powder container, a morphology of the powder in the powder container, a level of the powder disposed in the powder container, a mass of the powder disposed in the powder container, or contamination in the powder disposed in the powder container. 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining the powder and excess powder under an inert atmosphere during steps a) – l). 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising measuring at least one powder material parameter of the excess powder. 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising sifting the mixed powder through a sieve prior to j) repeating steps b) – i). 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising blending the mixed powder prior to validation. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein step c) delivering metal powder from the powder container to the additive manufacturing system comprises delivering the metal powder to a powder storage silo within the additive manufacturing system, and wherein a quantity of delivered metal powder is sufficient to form at least two layers of metal powder during step d). 8. The method of claim 1, wherein step d) consolidating comprises at least one of binding, sintering, or melting. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein validating the quality of the mixed powder comprises at least one of (i) measuring and assessing at least one powder material parameter of the mixed powder, or (ii) reviewing powder physical transfer data. 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising storing in the data repository the at least one powder material parameter of the mixed powder. 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one powder material parameter of the mixed powder is selected from the group consisting of interstitial element chemistry, substitutional
element chemistry, trace element analysis, apparent density, tap density, particle size distribution, humidity, powder shape, powder morphology, Hall flow, Carney flow, sieve specification, trapped gas content, rheometry stability index, and angle of repose. 12. The method of claim 9, wherein measuring at least one powder material parameter of the mixed powder comprises at least one of capturing an optical image, capturing a scanning electron microscopy image, capturing a cross-sectional image, performing coulometric titration, or performing a pycnometry measurement. 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the powder physical transfer data comprises at least one of powder storage data, identification of the additive manufacturing system, a number of times the powder was delivered to the additive manufacturing system, and a number of times the powder was mixed with virgin metal powder. 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting process data associated with at least one of steps a) – j). 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing in the data repository the collected process data. 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the process data comprises at least one of a laser power during the consolidation step c), a velocity of the laser during the consolidation step c), or a thickness of a layer formed in step d). 17. The method of claim 14, wherein validating the quality of the mixed powder further comprises reviewing the collected process data. 18. The method of claim 1, wherein the closed powder container comprises a shipping powder container in which the virgin metal powder is shipped after manufacture thereof. 19. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring virgin metal powder from a shipping powder container into the closed powder container prior to step a). 20. A closed-loop metal powder management method for additive manufacturing, the method comprising the steps of: a) obtaining a first metal powder suitable for additive manufacturing, the first metal powder being disposed in a closed powder container comprising at least one sensor, tracker, or optical device;
b) connecting the powder container to an additive manufacturing system with an automated metal powder transfer system to perform powder transfer in a closed loop, wherein the automated metal powder transfer system is controllable by at least one of a pneumatic or an electronic controller and is adapted to control delivery of a metered amount of metal powder to the additive manufacturing system; c) delivering metal powder from the powder container to the additive manufacturing system; d) operating the additive manufacturing system to form at least one layer of the metal powder over a build plate of the additive manufacturing system; e) consolidating a portion of the at least one metal powder layer, wherein an excess portion of the metal powder layer remains in powder form; f) repeating steps d) and e) at least once; g) transferring the excess metal powder from the additive manufacturing system to an excess powder container comprising at least one excess powder container sensor, excess powder container tracker, or excess powder container optical device; h) adding a second metal powder to the excess powder container to form a mixed powder; i) validating a quality of the mixed powder in the excess powder container; j) repeating steps b) – i) at least once using the validated mixed powder disposed in the excess powder container, k) collecting powder physical transfer data associated with at least one of steps a) – j); and l) storing in a data repository the powder physical transfer data, wherein at least one of the at least one sensor, tracker, optical device, excess powder container sensor, excess powder container tracker, or excess powder container optical device is electronically accessible during each of steps a) – l).
21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first metal powder and the second metal powder have a same composition. 22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first metal powder and the second metal powder are each from a single batch. 23. The method of claim 20, wherein the first metal powder and second metal powder are from different batches. 24. The method of claim 20, wherein the first metal powder is a virgin metal powder. 25. The method of claim 20, wherein the least one sensor is adapted to measure at least one of oxygen in the powder container, a temperature in the powder container, humidity in the powder container, pressure in the powder container, color of powder in the powder container, a morphology of the powder in the powder container, a level of the powder disposed in the powder container, a mass of the powder disposed in the powder container, or contamination in the powder disposed in the powder container. 26. The method of claim 20, wherein the excess powder container comprises an internal or an external powder container. 27. The method of claim 20, further comprising maintaining the first metal powder, second metal powder, excess metal powder, and mixed powder under an inert atmosphere during steps a) – l). 28. The method of claim 20, further comprising measuring at least one powder material parameter of the excess metal powder. 29. The method of claim 20, further comprising sifting the mixed powder through a sieve prior to j) repeating steps b) – i). 30. The method of claim 20, further comprising blending the mixed powder prior to validation. 31. The method of claim 20, wherein step c) delivering metal powder from the powder container to the additive manufacturing system comprises delivering the metal powder to a powder storage silo within the additive manufacturing system, and wherein a quantity of delivered metal powder is sufficient to form at least two layers of powder during step d).
32. The method of claim 20, wherein step d) consolidating comprises at least one of binding, sintering, or melting. 33. The method of claim 20, wherein validating the quality of the mixed powder comprises at least one of (i) measuring and assessing at least one powder material parameter of the mixed powder, or (ii) reviewing powder physical transfer data. 34. The method of claim 33, further comprising storing in the data repository the at least one powder material parameter of the mixed powder. 35. The method of claim 20, wherein the powder physical transfer data comprises at least one of powder storage data, identification of the additive manufacturing system, a number of times the powder was delivered to the additive manufacturing system, and a number of times the powder was mixed with the second powder. 36. The method of claim 20, further comprising collecting process data associated with at least one of steps a) – j). 37. The method of claim 36, further comprising storing in the data repository the collected process data. 38. The method of claim 36, wherein the process data comprises at least one of a laser power during the consolidation step c), a velocity of the laser during the consolidation step c), or a thickness of a layer formed in step d). 39. The method of claim 36, wherein validating the quality of the mixed powder further comprises reviewing the collected process data. 40. The method of claim 33, wherein the at least one powder material parameter of the mixed powder is selected from the group consisting of interstitial element chemistry, substitutional element chemistry, trace element analysis, apparent density, tap density, particle size distribution, humidity, powder shape, powder morphology, Hall flow, Carney flow, sieve specification, trapped gas content, rheometry stability index, and angle of repose. 41. The method of claim 33, wherein measuring at least one powder material parameter of the mixed powder comprises at least one of capturing an optical image, capturing a scanning electron microscopy image, capturing a cross-sectional image, performing coulometric titration, or performing a pycnometry measurement.
42. The method of claim 20, wherein the closed powder container comprises a shipping powder container in which the first metal powder is shipped after manufacture thereof. 43. The method of claim 20, wherein the first powder is a virgin powder, further comprising transferring the first metal powder from a shipping powder container into the closed powder container prior to step a). 44. A closed-loop metal powder management method for additive manufacturing, the method comprising the steps of: a) transferring, by use of an automated metal powder transfer system, a virgin metal powder suitable for additive manufacturing from a hopper comprising at least one sensor, tracker, or optical device to a closed powder container comprising at least one container sensor, container tracker, or container optical device; b) connecting the powder container to an additive manufacturing system to perform powder transfer in a closed loop; c) delivering metal powder from the powder container to the additive manufacturing system; d) operating the additive manufacturing system to form at least one layer of the metal powder over a build plate of the additive manufacturing system; e) consolidating a portion of the at least one metal powder layer, wherein an excess portion of the metal powder layer remains in powder form; f) repeating steps d) and e) at least once; g) transferring the excess metal powder from the additive manufacturing system into the powder container, a second powder container, or an internal powder container; h) adding virgin metal powder to the excess metal powder in the powder container, the second powder container, or the internal powder container to form a mixed powder; i) validating a quality of the mixed powder; j) repeating steps b) – i) at least once with the validated mixed powder;
k) collecting powder physical transfer data associated with at least one of steps a) - j); and l) storing in a data repository the powder physical transfer data, wherein at least one of the at least one sensor, tracker, optical device, container sensor, container tracker, or container optical device is electronically accessible during each of steps a) – l).