Xerox Corporation

Kareem N Tawil

David Allen Mantell

Linn C Hoover

Erwin Ruiz

Carlos Manuel Terrero

Christopher T Chungbin

Rachel Lynn Tanchak

Zachary S Vader

Viktor Sukhotskiy

Chu-Heng Liu

Paul J McConville

Palghat Srinivas Ramesh

Scott J Vader

Douglas K Herrmann

Jason Mathew LeFevre

Anthony Salvatore Condello

Seemit Praharaj

Peter John Knausdorf

Joseph C Sheflin

Timothy Patrick Foley

Jack Thomas Lestrange

Ali Rafic Dergham

Alexander J Fioravanti

Patrick Jun Howe

Glenn David Batchelor

Dinesh Krishna Kumar Jayabal

Richard A Kalb

Denis Cormier

John Patrick Baker

Brian M Balthasar

William R Harris

Robert Jian Zhang

Megan Zielenski

Emmett James Spence

Collin A Ladd

Mariusz Mika

A three-dimensional (3D) metal object manufacturing apparatus is equipped with a liquid silicate application system to apply liquid silicate to a surface of a build platform prior to manufacture of a metal object. The liquid silicate layer is permitted to air dry and then the platform is heated to its operational temperature range for formation of a metal object with melted metal drops ejected by the apparatus. The liquid silicate layer forms a glassy, brittle layer on which the metal object is formed. This brittle layer is removed relatively easily with the object after the object is manufactured and the build platform is permitted to cool. The silicate layer improves the wetting of the surfaces of build platforms made with non-wetting materials, such as oxidized steel, while also preventing metal-to-metal welds with wetting materials, such as tungsten or nickel.

Metal drop ejecting three-dimensional (3D) object printer and method of operation for facilitating build and release of a metal object from a build platform

A printing system comprises a print fluid deposition assembly, a media transport device, and an air flow control system. The print fluid deposition assembly comprises a carrier plate and a printhead arranged to eject a print fluid through an opening of the carrier plate to a deposition region. The media transport device comprises a movable support surface to transport a print medium along a process direction through the deposition region, the media transport device holding the print medium against the movable support surface by vacuum suction. The air flow control system is arranged to selectively flow air through the opening of the carrier plate between the carrier plate and the printhead based on a location of a print medium transported by the media transport device relative to the printhead.

Devices, systems, and methods for supplying makeup air through openings in carrier plates of printing system

A printing system comprises a print fluid deposition assembly, a media transport device, and an air flow control system. The print fluid deposition assembly comprises a printhead to eject a print fluid through an opening of a carrier plate to a deposition region. The media transport device holds a print medium against the movable support surface by vacuum suction and transports the print medium through the deposition region. The air flow control system is to flow air through the carrier plate to the movable support surface via a port through the carrier plate on an inboard side the carrier plate and to control a flow rate of the air flowed through the port based on a size of a print medium transported by the media transport device.

Devices, systems, and methods for supplying makeup air through ports in a carrier plate of a printing system

A three-dimensional (3D) printer includes an ejector and a heating element configured to heat a solid printing material in the ejector, thereby causing the solid printing material to change to a liquid printing material within the ejector. The 3D printer also includes a coil wrapped at least partially around the ejector. The 3D printer also includes a power source configured to supply one or more pulses of power to the coil, which cause one or more drops of the liquid printing material to flow out of the ejector through a nozzle of the ejector. The 3D printer also includes a gas-controlling device configured to control a gas in the 3D printer.

Atmosphere and part formation in a liquid metal drop-on-demand printer

A method operates a three-dimensional (3D) metal object manufacturing system to compensate for errors that occur during object formation. In the method, thermal image data and dimensional image data of a metal object being formed by the 3D metal object manufacturing system is generated prior to completion of the metal object. Thermal conditions are identified from these data and compared to predetermined ranges corresponding to the identified thermal conditions to identify one or more errors. For identified errors outside a corresponding predetermined difference range, the method performs an error compensation technique. The error compensation includes modification of a surface data model, modification of machine-ready instructions, or operation of a subtractive device.

Method and system for operating a metal drop ejecting three-dimensional (3D) object printer to compensate for geometric variations that occur during an additive manufacturing process

A method is disclosed. For example, the method executed by a processor of a multi-function device (MFD) includes monitoring operating parameters of a component in the MFD, calculating a life set point for the component based on the operating parameters, and changing a default life set point for the component stored in a memory of the MFD to the life set point that is calculated based on the operating parameters.

Modifying stored life set points for components in a multi-function device

A jetting assembly that can be used to print a high-temperature print material such as a metal or metal alloy, an aqueous ink, or another material, includes an actuator for heating a gas such as a non-volatile gas within a gas cavity. The actuator rapidly heats the gas within the gas cavity, which rapidly increases a volume of the gas, thereby applying a pressure to the print material within an expansion channel that is in fluid communication with the gas cavity. In turn, the print material within the expansion channel applies a pressure to the print material within a nozzle bore, which forces a drop of the print material from a nozzle. The jetting assembly further includes a supply inlet that supplies the print material to the expansion chamber and the nozzle bore, for example, from a reservoir.

Gas expansion material jetting actuator

A jetting assembly for ejecting a print material includes an actuator for applying a pressure to the print material, and further includes jetting assembly block that defines a pump chamber, a converging part (i.e., a narrowing taper), and a nozzle bore that ends or terminates in a nozzle from which a drop of the print material is ejected. An implementation can further include a throat and a diverging part that, together with the converging part, forms a venturi. The converging part results in an increase in a velocity of the print material and a decrease in pressure as the print material passes an supply port of a supply channel. The decrease in pressure can result in a replacement of at least a portion of the drop volume within the throat or the nozzle bore even before the drop is ejected from the nozzle.

Venturi inlet printhead

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Pittsford, NY, United States of America

Kareem N Tawil