Palo Alto Research Center Inc.

Victor Alfred Beck

David Mathew Johnson

John Steven Paschkewitz

Gabriel Iftime

David Kalman Biegelsen

Scott Alan Elrod

Ranjeet Balakrishna Rao

Armin R Volkel

Eric J Shrader

David Eric Schwartz

Tse Nga Ng

Bhaskar Saha

Corie Lynn Cobb

Kai Melde

Clinton J Smith

Emily Tow

An additive manufacturing process includes creating an aerosol from a powder at a spray generator, charging the aerosol to produce a charged aerosol having a first charge, forming a blanket charge on a deposition surface having a second charge with an opposite polarity from the first charge, selectively removing regions of the blanket charge, leaving charged regions on the deposition surface, and transporting the charged aerosol to the charged regions to form structures on the charged regions from the charged aerosol.

Electrostatic polymer aerosol deposition and fusing of solid particles for three-dimensional printing

A process of creating an aerosol includes coating at least one of a pair of counter-rotating, adjacent rollers with a fluid, the pair of counter-rotating rollers defining a nip therebetween, rotating the counter-rotating rollers to cause the fluid to be drawn into an upstream side of the nip, causing fluid filaments of the fluid to form on a downstream side of the nip, the fluid filaments stretching between respective surfaces of the pair of counter-rotating rollers and breaking into droplets on the downstream side of the nip, and harvesting the droplets at the downstream side of the nip.

Methods and systems for creating aerosols

A method includes providing a reservoir of randomly oriented fibers in a solution, dispensing the solution of randomly oriented fibers through a nozzle having an orientation component onto a porous substrate as a solution of aligned fibers, and immobilizing the fibers to form a fiber pre-form. A system includes a porous substrate, a deposition nozzle, a reservoir of randomly oriented fibers in solution connected to the deposition nozzle, the deposition nozzle position adjacent the porous substrate and connected to the reservoir, the nozzle to receive the randomly oriented fibers and output aligned fibers, and a vacuum connected to the porous substrate to remove fluid from the porous substrate as the deposition nozzle deposits the aligned fibers on the porous substrate to produce a fiber pre-form having aligned fibers.

Creating aligned and oriented fiber reinforced polymer composites

A deposition system has a reservoir of a material to be deposited, the material having fibers, a print head having a mixer to generate a mixed flow of the materials having fibers, a flow focusing section arranged to cause short fibers to align inside the print head, and an outlet of the print head to allow the material to be deposited on a substrate, and a controller to actuate the print head to control an orientation of the print head relative to a substrate to cause longer fibers to align external to the print head. A deposition system includes a reservoir of a material to be deposited, the material having fibers, a print head connected to the reservoir of material by a conduit, the print head having an exit nozzle and an actuator, the actuator to control the orientation of the exit nozzle relative to a substrate.

System for digital fabrication of graded, hierarchical material structures

An additive manufacturing system has an aerosol generator to aerosolize a powder, a deposition surface, a surface charging element to apply a blanket charge to the deposition surface, a charging print head to selectively remove portions of the blanket charge from the deposition surface, and a transport system to transport the aerosol powder from the aerosol generator to the deposition surface, the transport system having an aerosol charging element to apply charge opposite of the blanket charge to the aerosol powder. An additive manufacturing process includes creating an aerosol from a powder at a spray generator, charging the aerosol to produce a charged aerosol having a first charge, forming a blanket charge on a deposition surface having a second charge of an opposite polarity from the first charge, selectively removing regions of the blanket charge, and transporting the charged aerosol to the charged regions to form structures on the charged regions from the charged aerosol.

A method of creating aerosols includes drawing a fluid from a fluid source through a first nip, the first nip defined between a first roller and an inner surface of a ring, the first nip having an upstream side and a downstream side, drawing the fluid from the fluid source through a second nip, the second nip defined between a second roller and the inner surface of the ring, the second roller positioned adjacent to and spaced apart from the first roller in a circular configuration, the second nip having an upstream side and a downstream side, stretching the fluid between diverging surfaces of the first roller and the inner surface of the ring on the downstream side of the first nip to form a first fluid filament, stretching the fluid between diverging surface of the second roller and the inner surface of the ring on the downstream side of the second nip to form a second fluid filament, causing the first fluid filament to break into a plurality of first droplets, and causing the second fluid filament to break into a plurality of second droplets.

A controlled-volume spray deposition system has a fluid feed system including a pair of bi-directional, counter-rotating rollers to dispense fluid as a first surface, the rollers operable to rotate in a first direction to dispense the fluid, a second surface positioned to receive the fluid when the rollers rotate in the first direction, and the rollers operable to rotate in a second direction to retract the fluid to cause the fluid to stretch and form a filament until it breaks to form a spray. A method of generating a controlled-volume spray includes feeding fluid between two counter-rotating rollers as a first surface as they rotate in a first direction until the fluid contacts a second surface, reversing the counter-rotating rollers such that they pull the fluid to form a fluid filament, and causing the filament to break into a spray.

Devices and methods for the controlled formation and dispension of small drops of highly viscous and/or non-newtonian liquids

An additive deposition system and method, the system including generating an aerosol of additive material that is charged and deposited onto a selectively charged substrate. Selectively charging the substrate includes uniformly charging a surface of the substrate, selectively removing charged from the substrate to create charged and neutral regions of the substrate surface. The charged regions of the substrate having a polarity opposite a polarity of the charged aerosol. The charged aerosol of additive material deposited onto the selectively charged portions of the substrate surface due to the potential difference between the charged substrate and charged aerosol. The system and method further including repeating the additive deposition process to create a multi-layer matrix of additive material.

Additive deposition system and method

A method of creating a three-dimensional object includes generating a spray from a fluid by stretching the fluid between two diverging surfaces into a fluid filament until the fluid filament breaks into a plurality of droplets and forms the spray, entraining the spray in a carrier gas flow, directing the carrier gas flow toward a target surface through a multi-nozzle array, and repeatedly applying the carrier gas flow on a target surface to form the three-dimensional object by controlling the direction of the carrier gas flow toward the target surface.

Polymer spray deposition methods and systems

A method of manufacturing a fiber reinforced thermoplastic part includes placing fibers, fixing the fibers in place, cutting the fibers, infusing the fibers with a thermoplastic polymer, stacking multiple sheets of the fibers, and molding the multiple sheets together. A method of manufacturing a part includes placing original fibers, fixing the fibers in place, cutting the fibers, infusing the fibers with a thermoplastic polymer, stacking multiple sheets of the fibers, molding the multiple sheets together to form a moldable sheet, and applying a mold to the moldable sheet.

Fiber reinforced thermoplastic sheets for thermoforming

Aerosols can be created by filament stretching and breaking of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids by applying a strain to and stretching the fluid. The fluid is stretched along a strain pathway and forms a fluid filament between diverging surfaces. The stretched fluid filament breaks into droplets that can be harvested to form a mist or aerosol. The aerosol creation systems can include one or more pairs of counter-rotating rollers that are positioned adjacent to each other that stretch the fluid or a pair of pistons that move toward and away from each other to stretch the fluid. Some aerosol creation systems can include multiple pairs of counter-rotating rollers that are positioned in a circular, oval, or linear pattern. The aerosol creation system with multiple pairs of counter-rotating rollers can generate mist is one or more directions and can be positioned between two concentric rings or linearly, among other configurations.

The disclosed spray deposition systems and methods use spray charging and discharging techniques to assist with digital deposition of spray droplets on a substrate. For example, the disclosed systems and methods have a charging system that generates spray droplets from a spray generator and charges the droplets. Focusing electrodes help to collimate the droplets into a tight droplet stream and, optionally, steering electrodes help direct the tight droplet stream. A charge removal system neutralizes or removes the charge from the droplets, either during the deposition of the droplets on a substrate or after the droplets have been deposited on a substrate.

Spray charging and discharging system for polymer spray deposition device

A deposition nozzle has a housing, an inlet into the housing arranged to receive a solution carrying randomly oriented fibers, an orientation component within the housing, the orientation component positioned to receive the solution from the inlet and operate to produce aligned fibers in a predetermined, single direction, and an outlet on the housing arranged to receive the aligned fibers and deposit them on a substrate. A system includes a porous substrate, a deposition nozzle, a reservoir of randomly oriented fibers in solution connected to the deposition nozzle, the deposition nozzle position adjacent the porous substrate and connected to the reservoir, the nozzle to receive the randomly oriented fibers and output aligned fibers, and a vacuum connected to the porous substrate to remove fluid from the porous substrate as the deposition nozzle deposits the aligned fibers on the porous substrate to produce a fiber pre-form having aligned fibers. A method includes providing a reservoir of randomly oriented fibers in a solution, dispensing the solution of randomly oriented fibers through a nozzle having an orientation component onto a porous substrate as a solution of aligned fibers, and immobilizing the fibers to form a fiber pre-form.

A method of powder coating a substrate includes receiving a powder coating material into a feed input, using the feed input, melting the powder coating material into a homogeneous fluid of powder coating material, receiving the homogeneous fluid of powder coating material into a filament extension atomizer positioned in-line with the feed input, atomizing, with the filament extension atomizer, the received homogeneous fluid of powder coating material into multiple droplets of powder coating material, cooling the droplets of powder coating material to a processing temperature that prevents the droplets from agglomerating, and directing the cooled droplets through a deposition passage positioned in-line with the filament extension atomizer, the deposition passage configured to direct at least a portion of the cooled droplets towards a substrate.

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Menlo Park, CA, United States of America

Victor Alfred Beck