Formlabs, Inc.

Luke Plummer

Yoav Reches

John E Ouchterlony

Brian Chan

Robb Morgan

Christopher Auld

Maxim Lobovsky

Jason Livingston

Eduardo Torrealba

Carlos Ruiz-Vargas

Connor Evans

Robert Morgan

Maria Rosa Ruiz

According to some aspects, degradation of material in a sintering additive fabrication process may be mitigated or avoided by fabricating parts within a chamber that includes one or more thermal breaks. The thermal break may be implemented using a variety of structures, but generally allows material in the chamber close to the surface to be maintained at different temperatures than the material further from the surface. For instance, as a result of the thermal break, parts located within the material of the chamber that were formed earlier during fabrication may be kept cooler to avoid damage to the parts yet the upper surface (sometimes called the 'build surface') of unconsolidated material may be heated enough so as to require minimal additional energy exposure to trigger consolidation.

Building material enclosure comprising a thermal break

Techniques are described for consistently moving powder from a hopper into a trough for subsequent delivery into a build area of an additive fabrication system. A powder delivery apparatus may comprise a hopper, a trough, and a doser. The doser may be configured to rotate about an axis and may include a recess that, when the doser is rotated about the axis, travels into and out of the hopper and into and out of the trough. As a result, when powder is present in the hopper, the recess may carry powder from the hopper to the trough when the doser rotates. The trough and doser may be configured so that when the trough contains the desired amount of powder for recoating, the doser does not transfer additional material from the hopper into the trough. As a result, the amount of powder in the trough may be self-regulating.

Techniques for powder delivery in additive fabrication and related systems and methods

Build chamber for a three-dimensional printer

Three-dimensional printer

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Medford, MA, United States of America

Luke Plummer