Palo Alto Research Center Inc.

Xerox Corporation

Siemens Industry Software Gmbh

Erva Ulu

Nurcan Gecer Ulu

Walter Hsiao

Saigopal Nelaturi

Jiahao Li

Suraj Ravi Musuvathy

Erhan Arisoy

David Madeley

Svyatoslav Korneev

Nelaturi Saigopal

A three-dimensional object model is divided into slices that are targeted for an additive manufacturing process operable to deposit material at a variable deposition size ranging between minimum and maximum printable feature sizes. For each of the slices, a thinning algorithm is applied to contours of the slice to form a meso-skeleton. Topological features of the thinned slice are reduced over a number of passes such that a portion of the meso-skeleton is reduced to a single pixel wide line. Based on the number of passes, a slice-specific printable feature size within the range of the minimum and maximum printable feature sizes is determined. An adjusted slice is formed by sweeping the meso-skeleton with the slice-specific printable feature size. The adjusted slices are assembled into an object model which is used to create a manufactured object.

System and method for determining spatial distribution of variable deposition size in additive manufacturing

A system for three-dimensional printing of an object is provided. The system includes a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium communicatively coupled to the processor and storing instructions that when executed by the processor are configured to cause the processor to perform operations including determine optimized build orientation based on the object and one or more user indicated surface quality characteristics, generate a plurality of layers comprising one or more support polygons, each layer of the plurality of layers corresponding to a slice in a three-dimensional ('3D') printing process, and generate, for each of the one or more support polygons, a corresponding toolpath, wherein a spacing between each generated toolpath is determined based on the user indicated surface quality characteristics.

Controller and 3D printing apparatus for varying density support structures through interpolation of support polygon boundaries with scalar density fields

A system for interactively designing a support structure for a three-dimensionally printed object having user-defined surface quality, the system including a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium communicatively coupled to the processor and storing instructions executable by the processor is provided. When executed, the instructions cause the processor perform operations including receiving a digital model of the object to be three-dimensionally printed, receiving user input related to a desired surface quality at one or more portions of the digital model, determining a printing orientation of the object based on the digital model and the user input; determining a support layout for the object, based on the printing orientation and the user input, and transmitting the support layout, the printing orientation, and the digital model to a three-dimensional printer.

Interactive design tool for varying density support structures

Systems and methods may support build direction-based partitioning for construction of a physical object through additive manufacturing. In some implementations, a system may access a surface mesh representative of a 3D object and an initial build direction for construction of the object using additive manufacturing. The system may partition the surface mesh into an initial buildable segment and a non-buildable segment based on the initial build direction. The system may iteratively determine subsequent build directions and partition off subsequent buildable segments from the unbuildable segment until no portion of the non-buildable segment remains. The determined buildable segments and correlated build directions may be provided to a multi-axis 3D printer for construction of the represented 3D object through additive manufacturing.

Build direction-based partitioning for construction of a physical object through additive manufacturing

A method for producing a design includes receiving a set of design constraints. A spatial field is created based on the design constraints. The spatial field is represented with a linear combination of one or more bases. A number of the one or more bases is less than a number of elements in the spatial field. Respective weights are optimized for each of the one or more bases. A design is produced based on the spatial field and the weights.

Spatial field optimization with reduced parameters

A three-dimensional object model is divided into a plurality of slices that are targeted for an additive manufacturing process having a minimum printable feature size. For each of the slices, a thinning algorithm is applied to one or more contours of the slice to form a meso-skeleton, where topological features of the thinned slice that are smaller than the minimum printable feature size are reduced to skeletal paths. A corrected slice is formed using the meso-skeleton by sweeping the meso-skeleton with the minimum printable feature size. The corrected slices are assembled into a corrected object model and the corrected object model is used in the additive manufacturing process.

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Erva Ulu