Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Markus Kayser

Neri Oxman

Michael C Stern

Peter Houk

Chikara Inamura

John Klein

Shreya H Dave

Giorgia Franchin

Nassia Inglessis

Sara Falcone

Levi Cai

A team of robots may fabricate a tubular structure. Each robot may fabricate a tube by winding resin-covered fiber around an inflated, cylindrical mandrel of the robot. The resin may cure, resulting in a hardened tube segment The robot may extend the tube by fabricating additional segments of the tube, one segment at a time. After a first segment cures, the mandrel may deflate, then the robot may move up inside the tube, then the mandrel may inflate, and the robot may begin fabricating another tube segment. After completing a tube segment, the robot may tilt relative to that segment, before starting the next segment. By doing so, the robot may cause the tube to be curved. A computer may guide the team of robots during fabrication of the tubes, by executing a flocking algorithm. The algorithm may prevent collisions with already fabricated tube segments.

Methods and apparatus for tube fabrication

In illustrative implementations of this invention, a crucible kiln heats glass such that the glass becomes or remains molten. A nozzle extrudes the molten glass while one or more actuators actuate movements of the nozzle, a build platform or both. A computer controls these movements such that the extruded molten glass is selectively deposited to form a 3D glass object. The selective deposition of molten glass occurs inside an annealing kiln. The annealing kiln anneals the glass after it is extruded. In some cases, the actuators actuate the crucible kiln and nozzle to move in horizontal x, y directions and actuate the build platform to move in a z-direction. In some cases, fluid flows through a cavity or tubes adjacent to the nozzle tip, in order to cool the nozzle tip and thereby reduce the amount of glass that sticks to the nozzle tip.

Methods and apparatus for additive manufacturing of glass

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Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Markus Kayser