Apparatuses for three-dimensional printing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9962767-B2
Application number	US-201615374821-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2016
Priority date	Dec 10, 2015
Publication date	May 8, 2018
Grant date	May 8, 2018

Abstract

The present disclosure various apparatuses, and systems for 3D printing. The present disclosure provides three-dimensional (3D) printing methods, apparatuses, software and systems for a step and repeat energy irradiation process; controlling material characteristics and/or deformation of the 3D object; reducing deformation in a printed 3D object; and planarizing a material bed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for printing a three-dimensional object, comprising:
a platform configured to support a bottom skin layer of hardened material that is a part of the three-dimensional object, wherein the bottom skin layer is disposed above the platform;
a material dispenser configured to dispense a pre-transformed material towards the platform through an opening, wherein the material dispenser is disposed adjacent to the platform;
an energy source configured to generate an energy beam that transforms at least a portion of the pre-transformed material at or adjacent to the platform, wherein the energy source is disposed adjacent to the platform; and
one or more controllers operatively coupled to the material dispenser and the energy source, which one or more controllers are individually or collectively programmed to:
(A) direct the material dispenser to dispense the pre-transformed material at or above the bottom skin layer, and
(B) direct the energy beam to:
(I) transform the at least the portion of the pre-transformed material to form a first portion of transformed material at or above the bottom skin layer that comprises a second portion of transformed material, which first portion of transformed material at least partially overlaps the second portion of transformed material along a lateral dimension of the bottom skin layer; and
(II) increase a temperature of the second portion of transformed material under heating conditions sufficient to yield a target temperature value that is one or more of (i) above a solidus temperature of a material of the bottom skin layer and below a liquidus temperature of the material of the bottom skin layer, and (ii) at or above a temperature at which the material of the bottom skin layer in the second portion of transformed material plastically yields.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein a center of the first portion of transformed material is above the second portion of transformed material along a lateral dimension of the bottom skin layer.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of transformed material is above the bottom skin layer along a direction perpendicular to the platform.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more controllers are individually or collectively programmed to direct the energy beam to increase the temperature of the second portion using a simulation.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the simulation comprises a thermo-mechanical simulation.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the simulation comprises a material property of the three-dimensional object.

7. The system of claim 4 , wherein the one or more controllers are individually or collectively programmed to direct the energy beam to increase the temperature of the second portion using a graphical processing unit (GPU), system-on-chip (SOC), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), application specific instruction-set processor (ASIPs), programmable logic device (PLD), or field programmable gate array (FPGA).

8. A system for printing a three-dimensional object, comprising:
a container configured to support a material bed comprising an exposed surface, a pre-transformed material, and a bottom skin layer of hardened material, wherein at least a fraction of the pre-transformed material is disposed above the bottom skin layer, wherein the bottom skin layer is part of the three-dimensional object;
an energy source configured to generate an energy beam that transforms at least a portion of the at least the fraction of the pre-transformed material to a transformed material as part of the three-dimensional object, wherein the energy source is disposed adjacent to the material bed; and
one or more controllers operatively coupled to the energy source, which one or more controllers are individually or collectively programmed to direct the energy beam to:
(I) transform the at least a portion of the pre-transformed material to form a first portion of transformed material at or above the bottom skin layer that comprises a second portion of transformed material, which first portion of transformed material at least partially overlaps the second portion of transformed material along a lateral dimension of the bottom skin layer; and
(II) increase a temperature of the second portion of transformed material under heating conditions sufficient to yield a target temperature value that is one or more of (i) above a solidus temperature of a material of the bottom skin layer and below a liquidus temperature of the material of the bottom skin layer, and (ii) at or above a temperature at which the material of the bottom skin layer in the second portion of transformed material plastically yields.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more controllers are individually or collectively programmed to direct the energy beam to increase the temperature of the second portion using feedback or feed-forward control.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more controllers are individually or collectively programmed to direct the energy beam to increase the temperature of the second portion using closed loop or open loop control.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more controllers are individually or collectively programmed to direct the energy beam to increase the temperature of the second portion using a graphical processing unit (GPU), system-on-chip (SOC), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), application specific instruction-set processor (ASIPs), programmable logic device (PLD), or field programmable gate array (FPGA).

12. The system of claim 8 , further comprising a material dispenser that is configured to form the material bed at least by dispensing a layer of the pre-transformed material generated by removing an excess of pre-transformed material from the exposed surface of the material bed using a gas flow and cyclonically separating the pre-transformed material from the gas flow.

13. A system for printing a three-dimensional object, comprising:
a platform configured to support a target surface and a bottom skin layer of hardened material that is a part of the three-dimensional object, wherein the bottom skin layer is disposed above the platform;
a material dispenser configured to dispense a pre-transformed material towards the target surface through an opening of the material dispenser, wherein the material dispenser is disposed adjacent to the target surface;
an energy source configured to generate an energy beam that transforms at least a portion of the pre-transformed material at or adjacent to the target surface, wherein the energy source is disposed adjacent to the target surface; and
one or more controllers operatively coupled to the energy source, wherein the one or more controllers are individually or collectively programmed to:
(I) direct the energy beam to transform the at least the portion of the pre-transformed material at or adjacent to the target surface to a transformed material portion disposed above the bottom skin layer, and
(II) control at least one characteristic of the energy beam such that a temperature of the hardened material at the bottom skin layer below the transformed material portion is one or more of (i) above a solidus temperature of a material of the bottom skin layer and below a liquidus temperature of the material of the bottom skin layer, and (ii) at or above a temperature at which a material in the bottom skin layer plastically yields.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the transformed material portion comprises a melt pool.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the one or more controllers are individually o

Assignees

• Velo3D Inc

Inventors

• Buller Benyamin
• LAPPAS Tasso
• Mendelsberg Rueben
• Lappen Alan Rick

Classifications

• B29C64/307 Primary

  Handling of material to be used in additive manufacturing · CPC title

• B22F12/60 Primary

  Planarisation devices; Compression devices · CPC title

• B29C64/357

  Recycling · CPC title

• B29C64/35

  Cleaning · CPC title

• B22F12/70

  Gas flow means · CPC title