Covestro Deutschland Ag

Stratasys, Inc.

Levent Akbas

Dirk Achten

Roland Wagner

Thomas Büsgen

Nicolas Degiorgio

Dirk Dijkstra

Peter Reichert

Bettina Mettmann

Jürgen Hättig

Jörg Büchner

Thomas Buesgen

Wolfgang Arndt

Thomas Michaelis

Michael Kessler

Christoph Tomczyk

Jonas Kuenzel

Thomas Busgen

Julien Guiu

Arnaud Guedou

Jonas Künzel

Rolf Albach

Thomas BÜSGEN

The invention relates to a method for producing an at least partially coated object, comprising the step of producing the object from a construction material by means of an additive manufacturing method, the construction material comprising a thermoplastic polyurethane material. Following the production of the object, the method comprises the step of at least partially bringing a preparation into contact with the object, the preparation being selected from: an aqueous polyurethane dispersion; an aqueous dispersion of a polymer comprising OH groups, this dispersion also containing a compound comprising NCO groups; an aqueous preparation of a compound containing NCO groups, but not containing any polymers comprising OH groups; or a combination of at least two thereof. The invention also relates to an at least partially coated object that was obtained by a method according to the invention.

Method for producing an at least partially coated object

It is a feature of a porous body () comprising a three-dimensional network of node points () joined to one another by struts (), and a void volume () present between the struts (), that the struts () have an average length of ≥200 to ≤50 mm, the struts () have an average thickness of ≥100 μm to ≤5 mm, and that the porous body has a compression hardness (40% compression, DIN EN ISO 3386-1: 2010-09) in at least one spatial direction of ≥10 to ≤100 kPa. The porous body according to the invention combines the advantages of a conventional mattress or cushion with ventilatability which results from its porous structure and is not achievable in conventional foams. The invention further relates to a method of producing such a porous body () and to an apparatus comprising said body () for supporting and/or bearing a person.

Porous body, additive manufacturing method for the body and apparatus for supporting and/or bearing a person

A method for producing an object from a filamentary building material in an additive fused deposition modelling process, comprising the steps of: providing the building material; transporting the building material into a printhead at a feed rate for the building material, wherein the building material is transported between a driven drive wheel and a second wheel; melting the building material by means of a heating device in the printhead; discharging the molten building material to a discharge location, corresponding to a selected cross section of the object to be produced, at a discharge rate through an orifice of the printhead, with relative movement of the printhead in relation to the discharge location at a predetermined speed to movement along a predetermined path, wherein the path has at each location a curvature that can assume a positive value, zero or a negative value; wherein a control unit controls at least the drive of the drive wheel, the heating device in the printhead and the movement of the printhead in dependence on the curvature of the printing path. Likewise disclosed is a control unit for use in an installation for carrying out an additive fused deposition modelling process with a filamentary building material.

3-D printing process with path-dependent control of the printing path

A process is described for producing a three dimensional structure, the process including the following steps a) applying of at least a first material Monto a substrate to build a first layer Lon the substrate; b) layering of at least one further layer Lof the first material Mor of a further material Monto the first layer L, wherein the at least one further layer Ly covers the first layer Land/or previous layer Lat least partially to build a precursor of the three dimensional structure; c) curing the precursor to achieve the three dimensional structure; wherein at least one of the materials Mor Mprovides a Mooney viscosity of &#x3e;10 ME at 60&#xb0; C. and of &#x3c;200 ME at 100&#xb0; C. before curing and wherein at least one of the first material Mi or of the further material Mis a powder. Also, a three dimensional structure is described which is available according to the process according to the invention.

Process for producing 3D structures from powdered rubber material and its products

A process for manufacturing an article comprises the steps of: I) applying a filament of an at least partially fused construction material to a support so as to obtain a layer of the construction material which corresponds to a first selected cross-section of the article; II) applying a filament of the at least partially fused construction material to a previously applied layer of the construction material so as to obtain a further layer of the construction material which corresponds to a further selected cross-section of the article and which is bonded to the previously applied layer; and III) repeating step II) until the article is formed. At least steps II) and III) are carried out in a chamber and the construction material comprises a fusible polymer. The fusible polymer has a fusion range (DSC, differential scanning calorimetry; 2nd heating at a heating rate of 5 K/min.) of &#x2265;20&#xb0; C. to &#x2264;100&#xb0; C. The fusible polymer further has a complex viscosity |&#x3b7;*| (determined by viscosity measurement in the melt using a plate-plate oscillating viscometer according to ISO 6721-10 at 100&#xb0; C. and a shear rate of l/s) of &#x2265;10 Pas to &#x2264;1000000 Pas. Finally, the temperature inside the chamber is &#x2264;50&#xb0; C. The invention also relates to an article manufactured by the process according to the invention, to an article having a substrate and to an article bonded to the substrate, the article being in the form of an adhesive joint or varnish region, and to the use of a particular polyurethane in fused deposition modeling-based additive manufacturing processes.

Fused deposition modeling-based additive manufacturing process at low temperatures

The invention relates to a print head () for an additive fused deposition modelling method having a thermoplastic construction material, comprising:&#x2014;at least one inlet () for receiving a construction material () into the print head;&#x2014;at least one melt region, for melting the construction material (), which is arranged downstream of the inlet () and is fluidically connected, at least temporarily, to the inlet (); and&#x2014;at least one first outlet () that is fluidically connected, at least temporarily, to the melt region (), for discharging melted construction material () out of the melt region () at a first discharge rate; wherein&#x2014;the print head () also comprises at least one second outlet () that is fluidically connected, at least temporarily, to the melt region () for discharging melted or non-melted construction material () out of the melt region () at a second discharge rate; and&#x2014;the first discharge rate can be influenced by a first discharge rate influencing device () for the melted construction material ().

Print head, method and system for 3D printing having variable discharge rate

A process for manufacturing an article comprises the steps of: applying a layer that consists of particles to a target area; allowing, in a chamber, energy to act on a selected portion of the layer, according to a cross-section of the article, so that the particles in the selected portion are bonded, and repeating the steps of applying and allowing energy to act for a plurality of layers so that the bonded portions of the adjacent layers are bonded to form the article, at least part of the particles comprising a fusible polymer. The fusible polymer has a fusion range (DSC, differential scanning calorimetry; 2nd heating at a heating rate of 5 K/min.) of &#x2265;20&#xb0; C. to &#x2264;100&#xb0; C. The fusible polymer further has a complex viscosity \&#x3b7;*\ (determined by viscosity measurement in the melt using a plate-plate oscillating viscometer according to ISO 6721-10 at 100&#xb0; C. and a shear rate of 1/s) of &#x2265;10 Pas to &#x2264;1000000 Pas. Finally, the temperature inside the chamber is &#x2264;50&#xb0; C. The invention also relates to an article manufactured by the process according to the invention, to an article having a substrate and to an article bonded to the substrate, the article being in the form of an adhesive joint or varnish region, and to the use of a particular polyurethane in powder-based additive manufacturing processes.

Powder-based additive manufacturing process at low temperatures

It is a feature of a porous body comprising a three-dimensional network of node points joined to one another by struts, and a void volume present between the struts, that the struts have an average length of &#x2265;200 &#x3bc;m to &#x2264;50 mm, the struts have an average thickness of &#x2265;100 &#x3bc;m to &#x2264;5 mm, and that the porous body has a compression hardness (40% compression, DIN EN ISO 3386-1: 2010-09) in at least one spatial direction of &#x2265;10 to &#x2264;100 kPa. The porous body according to the invention combines the advantages of a conventional mattress or cushion with ventilatability which results from its porous structure and is not achievable in conventional foams. The invention further relates to a method of producing such a porous body and to an apparatus comprising said body for supporting and/or bearing a person.

A method of treating at least part of a surface () of an article () in which an article () is treated, at least part of a surface () of the article having been produced by an additive manufacturing method from a construction material, and the construction material provides a temperature Tat which the storage modulus G' of the construction material (determined by dynamic-mechanical analysis according to ISO 6721 at a shear rate of 1/s) is 10 MPa. The article is preferably placed into an evacuable volume and the volume is evacuated. By heating and exerting pressure, the surface is plastically deformed and can be smoothed thereby.

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Witten, Germany

Levent Akbas