Water soluble waxy support materials for three-dimensional printing applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11701838-B2
Application number	US-202117155498-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 22, 2021
Priority date	Jan 24, 2020
Publication date	Jul 18, 2023
Grant date	Jul 18, 2023

Abstract

In one aspect, urethane waxes are described herein comprising a reaction product between monofunctional polyethylene oxide and polyisocyanate. In some embodiments, the urethane waxes are combined with other components to provide support materials for use in three-dimensional printing applications. A support material ink, for example, comprises a urethane wax comprising a reaction product between monofunctional polyethylene oxide and polyisocyanate. The support material ink, in some embodiments, further comprises monomeric curable material, oligomeric curable material, or mixtures thereof.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A urethane wax comprising:
a reaction product between monofunctional polyethylene oxide and polyisocyanate,

wherein the reaction product is of the formula:

wherein R is selected from the group consisting of alkyl, cycloalkyl, heterocycloalkyl, aryl, and heteroaryl, and m and n are integers independently selected from 6 to 20; and
wherein m and n are unequal.

2. The urethane wax of claim 1 , wherein R is alkyl.

3. A support material ink for use in three-dimensional printing comprising:
a urethane wax comprising the reaction product between monofunctional polyethylene oxide and polyisocyanate; and
a monomeric curable material, an oligomeric curable material, or mixtures thereof.

4. The support material ink of claim 3 , wherein the polyisocyanate comprises diisocyanate.

5. The support material ink of claim 4 , wherein the diisocyanate is alkyl-diisocyanate.

6. The support material ink of claim 3 wherein the reaction product is of the formula:

wherein R is selected from the group consisting of alkyl, cycloalkyl, heterocycloalkyl, aryl, and heteroaryl, and m and n are integers independently selected from 6 to 20.

7. The support material ink of claim 3 , wherein the urethane wax is present in an amount of 30 to 55 weight percent of the support material ink.

8. The support material ink of claim 3 , wherein the monomeric curable material comprises one or more monofunctional species.

9. The support material of claim 8 , wherein the monofunctional species comprises one or more polar moieties.

10. The support material ink of claim 9 , wherein the monomeric curable material comprises one or more species of acrylates or acrylate derivatives.

11. The support material ink of claim 9 , wherein the monomeric curable material comprises acryloyl morpholine.

12. The support material ink of claim 3 , wherein the monomeric curable material is present in an amount of 40 to 65 weight percent of the support material ink.

13. The support material ink of claim 3 further comprising one or more additives selected from the group consisting of photoinitiators, inhibitors, stabilizing agents, sensitizers, and mixtures thereof.

14. The support material ink of claim 3 , wherein the support material ink when cured has water solubility of at least 5 g in 100 g water at 35° C.

15. The support material ink of claim 14 , wherein the water solubility is 5 g to 100 g in 100 g water at 35° C.

16. The support material ink of claim 3 , wherein the support material ink when cured has a Shore A hardness of 80 to 110.

17. A method of printing a three-dimensional article comprising:
depositing layers of a support material ink;
curing the deposited layer of the support material ink, wherein the support material ink comprises the ink of claim 3 ; and
depositing a build material ink on the cured support material ink.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising dissolving the cured support material ink with water.

Assignees

• 3D Systems Incorporated
• 3D Systems Inc

Inventors

• Wu Bo

Classifications

• B29C64/40 Primary

  Structures for supporting 3D objects during manufacture and intended to be sacrificed after completion thereof · CPC title

• B33Y70/00

  Materials specially adapted for additive manufacturing · CPC title

• C08F20/58

  containing oxygen in addition to the carbonamido oxygen {, e.g. N-methylolacrylamide, N-acryloylmorpholine} · CPC title

• C08G18/4833

  Polyethers containing oxyethylene units · CPC title

• C08G18/73

  acyclic · CPC title