The Ex One Company

Ut-battelle, Inc.

Daniel T Brunermer

Anthony S Dugan

Lawrence Joseph Voss

Tomonori Saito

Huayun Yu

Michael John McCoy

Joseph J Bolt

Travis Maxwell Inks

Thomas Lizzi

Michael J Orange

Jesse M Blacker

Paul P Knor

Michelle Lehmann

Andrew P Klein

Amy M Elliott

Dustin Blake Gilmer

Michael John Mccoy

Patrick Stack

Howard A Kuhn

Lawrence J Voss

Michael J Mccoy

Rick Lucas

Jason W Plymer

The present invention relates to apparatuses for distributing build powder in powder-layer three-dimensional printers () and for the collection of particulates of the build powder that have become suspended in the gaseous atmosphere in the vicinity of the build platform of the three-dimensional printer. These apparatuses include recoaters () that are particularly useful in providing uniform distribution of fine build powder across the width of the build platform or powder bed. The present invention also includes powder-layer three-dimensional printers () which comprise such apparatuses for distributing build powder and/or apparatuses for collecting such suspended particulates. The improved fine powder recoater () uses an ultrasonic transducer () to move powder through a sheet screen (). The sheet screen () may be presented to the powder fed onto it in a narrow dispensing slot to limit the flow rate of powder from the dispenser and to provide control over the amount of powder dispensed. The width of the slot may extend to cover the entire build box fill zone. The ultrasonic transducer () is preferably adapted to periodically sweep through a range of frequencies during operation. The ultrasonic vibration system may be augmented with a low frequency vibration system. The dust collection system () draws air from the perimeter of the build box () down through the deck plate () of the printer () and out of the printer's housing () to an external dust collector ().

Powder distribution system for three-dimensional printer

A method for binder jetting additive manufacturing of an object, the method comprising: (i) separately feeding a powder from which said object is to be manufactured and a solution comprising an adhesive polymer dissolved in a solvent into an additive manufacturing device, wherein said adhesive polymer is an amine-containing polymer having a molecular weight of at least 200 g/mole and is present in said solution in a concentration of 1-30 wt % to result in said solution having a viscosity of 2-25 mPa&#xb7;s and a surface tension of 25-45 mN/m at room temperature; and (ii) dispensing selectively positioned droplets of said adhesive polymer, from a printhead of said additive manufacturing device, into a bed of said powder to bind particles of said powder with said adhesive polymer to produce a preform having a shape of the object to be manufactured.

Indirect additive manufacturing process using amine-containing adhesive polymers

Methods are disclosed of making metal casting molds and components thereof by the three-dimensional printing process in which an untreated sand is used as the build material and a polymer is used as a component of the binder that is printed onto the build material.

Three-dimensional printed metal-casting molds and methods for making the same

A three-dimensional printing apparatus is disclosed has one or more troughs for receiving excess deposited particulate. Such troughs may be positioned to receive the excess deposited particulate into a particulate receiving chamber of the trough. An evacuation chamber is located at the bottom of each trough. A partition separates the evacuation chamber from the receiving chamber of the trough. The partition is selectively perforated to permit a desired amount of the particulate to flow into the evacuation chamber from the receiving chamber. The evacuation chamber is connected to a vacuum source to periodically or continuously draw ambient gas from a gas inlet to the evacuation chamber and/or from the receiving chamber through the perforations of the partition and then through the evacuation chamber toward the vacuum source to entrain an amount of the particulate and carry the entrained particulate out of the evacuation chamber.

Three-dimensional printing excess deposited particulate handling

Methods are provided for solid free-form fabrication of an article without using a slice stack file quickly and efficiently&#x2014;in terms of computational resources&#x2014;converting STL files representing an article or articles to be built by SFFF without the use of a conventional slicing program. An application program interface ('API') is used to generate a bitmap corresponding to each particular layer of the article that is to be printed directly from the article's STL file. This conversion may done essentially in real time immediately before the particular layer is to be printed. The bitmap is used in configuring the printing instructions for the SFFF printing mechanism to print that particular layer.

Three-dimensional printing using fast STL file conversion

Growing community of inventors

Leechburg, PA, United States of America

Daniel T Brunermer