Vapor spin cleaning of additively manufactured parts

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12384114-B2
Application number	US-202217937544-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 3, 2022
Priority date	Oct 9, 2020
Publication date	Aug 12, 2025
Grant date	Aug 12, 2025

Abstract

A method of cleaning residual resin from an additively manufactured object, includes: (a) enclosing an additively manufactured object in an inner chamber of a centrifugal separator, the additively manufactured object including a light polymerized resin with a surface coating of viscous, unpolymerized, residual resin; (b) flooding the chamber with a volatile organic solvent vapor without contacting liquid organic solvent to the object, the vapor present in an amount sufficient to reduce the viscosity of the residual resin; and (c) spinning the additively manufactured object in the chamber to centrifugally separate at least a first portion of the residual resin from the object.

First claim

We claim:

1. An apparatus for separating residual resin from additively manufactured objects, comprising:
(a) a chamber;
(b) a rotor in said chamber;
(c) at least one, or a plurality of, stereolithography build platform mount connected to said rotor; and
(d) an organic solvent vapor generator operatively associated with said chamber.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
(e) a heater operatively associated with said chamber.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
(f) a balancer operatively associated with said rotor.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein said balancer comprises a Leblanc balancer, a ball balancer, or a pendulum balancer.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said vapor generator comprises a solvent pool in said chamber, a gas line operatively associated with said pool for bubbling gas through solvent in said pool, and optionally a heater operatively associated with said gas line, said pool, or both said gas line and said pool.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said vapor generator is positioned outside said chamber and in fluid communication with said chamber, for generating a vapor outside said chamber and passing said vapor into said chamber.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said solvent vapor generator comprises a liquid solvent pool in said chamber, a liquid solvent supply operatively associated with said pool, and optionally a heater operatively associated with said pool.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
(e) a solvent vapor condenser operatively associated with said chamber.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
(f) a residual resin drain in fluid communication with said chamber.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said build platform mount(s) are configured for adjusting an angle at which said build platform(s) are positioned with respect to said rotor.

Assignees

• Carbon Inc

Inventors

• Feller Bob E
• Powell W Ryan
• Kaufman Mark O

Classifications

• B08B7/04

  by a combination of operations · CPC title

• B08B7/02

  by distortion, beating, or vibration of the surface to be cleaned {(B08B7/0007 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• B08B5/00

  Cleaning by methods involving the use of air flow or gas flow (cleaning hollow articles by methods or apparatus specially adapted thereto B08B9/00) · CPC title

• B08B3/08

  the liquid having chemical or dissolving effect · CPC title

• B33Y40/20

  Post-treatment, e.g. curing, coating or polishing · CPC title