Digitally-controlled three-dimensional printing of polymerizable materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12496770-B2
Application number	US-202217878123-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 1, 2022
Priority date	Feb 5, 2015
Publication date	Dec 16, 2025
Grant date	Dec 16, 2025

Abstract

Provided are methods of fabricating an object, effected by jetting two or more different compositions, each containing a different material or mixture of materials, which, when contacted on a receiving medium, undergo a chemical reaction therebetween to form the building material. The chemical composition of the formed building material is dictated by a ratio of the number of voxels of each composition in a voxel block. Systems for executing the methods, and printed objects obtained thereby are also provided.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of fabricating an object, the method comprising:
receiving three-dimensional printing data corresponding to the shape of the object; selecting a ratio between a first composition and a second composition, wherein said first composition comprises a first material and said second composition comprises a second material, said first and second materials undergoing a chemical reaction with one another so as to form a building material when exposed to a curing energy; dispensing droplets of said first and said second compositions in layers, on a receiving medium, using at least two different inkjet printing heads, according to said printing data; wherein for at least one region of the object, said dispensing of said droplets is selected to form voxel blocks, wherein, for each block, a ratio between a number of voxels of said first composition in said block and a number of voxels of said second composition in said block corresponds to said selected ratio; and wherein said first material is a first curable material and is a monomer polymerizable by an anionic ring opening polymerization, and wherein said second material is a second curable material which is a monomer polymerizable by photo-induced cationic polymerization and chemically reacts with said first curable material to form a co-polymer which forms a part of said building material, wherein a polymerized material formed of the first curable material and a polymerized material formed of the second curable material chemically interact with one another by cross-linking, wherein the method further comprises exposing the dispensed layers to said curing energy, said curing energy comprising thermal energy and UV irradiation.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein exposing the dispensed layers to said thermal energy comprises heating said receiving medium or a chamber hosting the receiving medium and/or by heat-inducing radiation.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of said first and second compositions comprises an additional material for inducing a chemical reaction between said first and second materials.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said second material is capable of modifying a chemical, physical and/or mechanical property of a modeling material formed of said first curable material, upon chemically reacting with said first curable material and exposure to said curing energy to thereby form said co-polymer, and wherein a degree of said modifying is determined by selecting said ratio.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said first curable material is a lactam.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein said first curable material is a caprolactam.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said first curable material is a lactone.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein said lactone is a caprolactone.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said first curable material is a lactam and/or a lactone and said second curable material is polymerizable by photo-induced cationic polymerization.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said second curable material is an epoxy resin.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein said second curable material is a cycloaliphatic epoxy resin.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of said first and second compositions further comprises a photoinitiator.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of said first and second compositions further comprises a catalyst for inducing said anionic ring opening polymerization.

Assignees

• Stratasys Ltd

Inventors

• Matzner Eynat
• Yudovin-Farber Ira
• Hirsch Shai
• Kuno Lev

Classifications

• B41J2/01

  Ink jet · CPC title

• B29C64/393

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B33Y50/02

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B33Y30/00

  Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor · CPC title

• C09D11/101

  Inks specially adapted for printing processes involving curing by wave energy or particle radiation, e.g. with UV-curing following the printing · CPC title