Three dimensional printing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11376797-B2
Application number	US-201816608857-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 16, 2018
Priority date	Jan 16, 2018
Publication date	Jul 5, 2022
Grant date	Jul 5, 2022

Abstract

A method and system for a three dimensional printing system are described herein. In one example, the three dimensional printing system has a moveable carriage, an array of laser modules and a print controller. In this example, the moveable carriage has a print head arranged to selectively deposit a printing agent on to a layer of build material as the moveable carriage is moved relative to the layer of build material. The printing agent controls localized fusing of the build material on application of energy. The print controller is communicatively coupled to the array of laser modules and controls activation of individual laser modules of the array of laser modules so as to apply, selectively, energy to addressable sub-regions of the layer of build material on which printing agent has been deposited to control fusing together with the deposited printing agent.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A three dimensional printing system comprising:
a moveable carriage comprising:
a print head arranged to selectively deposit a printing agent on to a layer of build material as the moveable carriage is moved relative to the layer of build material, the printing agent controlling localized fusing of the build material on application of energy;

an array of laser modules, wherein each laser module comprises a laser stack, the laser stack comprising a plurality of laser bars, each laser bar comprising a plurality of laser diodes, each laser bar being positioned between two metal parts that function as electrodes and dissipation heatsinks for each laser bar; and
a print controller communicatively coupled to the array of laser modules,
wherein the print controller is to control activation of individual laser modules of the array of laser modules so as to apply, selectively, energy to addressable sub-regions of the layer of build material on which printing agent has been deposited to control fusing together with the deposited printing agent.

2. The three dimensional printing system of claim 1 , wherein the array of laser modules are coupled to the moveable carriage and are aligned along an axis substantially perpendicular to a direction of motion of the moveable carriage, and wherein the print controller is to control activation of individual laser modules of the array of laser modules during movement of the moveable carriage.

3. The three dimensional printing system of claim 1 , wherein the print controller is to generate a modulated power supply signal for each laser module in the array of laser modules to control an amount of energy applied to sub-regions of the layer of build material.

4. The three dimensional printing system of claim 3 , wherein the modulated power supply signals are generated based on data indicative of printing agent deposit locations.

5. The three dimensional printing system of claim 1 , wherein each laser module comprises a plurality of laser diodes.

6. The three dimensional printing system of claim 1 , wherein the moveable carriage comprises a first and second array of laser modules and wherein the second array of laser modules is mounted on an opposite side of the moveable carriage to the first array of laser modules.

7. The three dimensional printing system of claim 6 , wherein the second array of laser modules is aligned such that the addressable sub-regions of the build material associated with the second array of laser modules overlap the addressable sub-regions associated with the first array of laser modules.

8. The three dimensional printing system of claim 1 , wherein the build material comprises a powdered polyamide.

9. The three dimensional printing system of claim 1 , wherein the print controller is arranged to control activation of individual laser modules of the array of laser modules to dynamically vary the size of the sub-regions on which energy is applied.

10. A method of fabricating a three dimensional object with a three dimensional printing system, the method comprising:
forming a layer of build material;
with a moveable carriage comprising a print head, selectively depositing a printing agent on to the layer of build material as the moveable carriage is moved relative to the layer of build material, the printing agent controlling localized fusing of the build material on application of energy;
with a print controller communicatively coupled to an array of laser modules, individually controlling the array of laser modules to selectively apply energy to sub-regions of the layer of build material in accordance with the selective deposition of the printing agent, wherein each laser module comprises a laser stack, the laser stack comprising a plurality of laser bars, each laser bar comprising a plurality of laser diodes, each laser bar being positioned between two metal parts that function as electrodes and dissipation heatsinks for each laser bar; and
wherein the print controller is configured to control activation of individual laser modules of the array of laser modules so as to apply, selectively, energy to addressable sub-regions of the layer of build material on which printing agent has been deposited to control fusing together with the deposited printing agent;
wherein the application of energy to the sub-regions enables localized fusing of build material where printing agent is deposited to fabricate a layer of the three dimensional object.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein controlling the plurality of laser modules, comprises determining which of the laser modules to activate based on the selective deposition of the printing agent.

12. The method of claim 10 comprising controlling the power supplied to the plurality of laser modules to control the amount of energy applied to sub-regions of the layer of build material.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of laser modules are coupled to a moveable carriage comprising a print head for selective deposit of the printing agent and controlling the plurality of laser modules comprises controlling the power supplied to the plurality of laser modules during a pass of the moveable carriage above the layer of build material.

14. A non-transitory machine readable medium comprising instructions which, when loaded into memory and executed by at least one processor, cause the processor to:
obtain data representative of a three dimensional object;
generate, based on the data representative of the three dimensional object, print control data to control a print head of a three dimensional printing system, the print control data controlling the selective deposit of a printing agent at a plurality of locations on a layer of build material, the printing agent controlling localized fusing of the build material on application of energy;
generate, based on the print control data, power supply signals for each laser module in an array of laser modules to apply, selectively, energy to addressable sub-regions of the layer of build material on which print agent has been deposited, wherein each laser module comprises a laser stack, the laser stack comprising a plurality of laser bars, each laser bar comprising a plurality of laser diodes, each laser bar being positioned between two metal parts that function as electrodes and dissipation heatsinks for each laser bar; and
operate a moveable carriage comprising a print head arranged to selectively deposit a printing agent on to a layer of build material as the moveable carriage is moved relative to the layer of build material, the printing agent controlling localized fusing of the build material on application of energy;
wherein the processor is communicatively coupled to the array of laser modules and configured to control activation of individual laser modules of the array of laser modules so as to apply, selectively, energy to addressable sub-regions of the layer of build material on which printing agent has been deposited to control fusing together with the deposited printing agent.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instructions cause the processor to:
instruct movement of a moveable carriage comprising the print head across the layer of build material,
wherein the power supply signals are synchronized with the movement of the moveable carriage to apply energy to the addressable sub-regions of the layer of build material.

16. The three dimensional printing system of claim 1 , wherein the print controller is to modulate a power supply signal to individual laser modules in response to more

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Development Co

Inventors

• Soler Pedemonte Xavier
• Comas Cespedes Esteve
• Ramos Campos Juan

Classifications

• B29C64/165

  using a combination of solid and fluid materials, e.g. a powder selectively bound by a liquid binder, catalyst, inhibitor or energy absorber · CPC title

• B29C64/393 Primary

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B29K2077/00

  Use of {PA, i.e.} polyamides, e.g. polyesteramides {or derivatives thereof}, as moulding material · CPC title

• B29C64/277

  using multiple radiation means, e.g. micromirrors or multiple light-emitting diodes [LED] · CPC title

• B33Y10/00

  Processes of additive manufacturing · CPC title