Xerox Corporation

Palo Alto Research Center Inc.

Additive Technologies, LLC Dba Additec

Walter Hsiao

David Allen Mantell

Christopher T Chungbin

Daniel R Cormier

Nurcan Gecer Ulu

Erva Ulu

Dinesh Krishna Kumar Jayabal

David G Tilley

PriyaankaDevi Guggilapu

Stuart Alan Schweid

Saigopal Nelaturi

Jiahao Li

Raja Bala

Zachary S Vader

Viktor Sukhotskiy

Scott J Vader

Michael F Dapiran

Nelaturi Saigopal

A slicer in a material drop ejecting three-dimensional (3D) object printer identifies the positions and local densities for a plurality of infill lines within a perimeter to be formed within a layer of an object to be formed by the printer. The local density of each infill line is filtered and a control law is applied to the filtered local density to identify an error in the local density compared to a target density. This process is performed iteratively until the error is within a predetermined tolerance range about the target local density. The error is used to generate machine ready instructions to operate the 3D object printer to achieve the target density for the infill lines.

Method for improved infilling of part interiors in objects formed by additive manufacturing systems

A three-dimensional object model is divided into slices that are targeted for an additive manufacturing process operable to deposit material at a variable deposition size ranging between minimum and maximum printable feature sizes. For each of the slices, a thinning algorithm is applied to contours of the slice to form a meso-skeleton. Topological features of the thinned slice are reduced over a number of passes such that a portion of the meso-skeleton is reduced to a single pixel wide line. Based on the number of passes, a slice-specific printable feature size within the range of the minimum and maximum printable feature sizes is determined. An adjusted slice is formed by sweeping the meso-skeleton with the slice-specific printable feature size. The adjusted slices are assembled into an object model which is used to create a manufactured object.

System and method for determining spatial distribution of variable deposition size in additive manufacturing

A method operates a three-dimensional (3D) metal object manufacturing system to compensate for displacement errors that occur during object formation. In the method, image data of a metal object being formed by the 3D metal object manufacturing system is generated prior to completion of the metal object and compared to original 3D object design data of the object to identify one or more displacement errors. For the displacement errors outside a predetermined difference range, the method modifies machine-ready instructions for forming metal object layers not yet formed to compensate for the identified displacement errors and operates the 3D metal object manufacturing system using the modified machine-ready instructions.

Method and system for operating a metal drop ejecting three-dimensional (3D) object printer to compensate for drop size variations

A slicer in a material drop ejecting three-dimensional (3D) object printer determines the number of material drops to eject to form a perimeter in an object layer and distributes a quantization error over the layers forming the perimeter. The slicer also identifies the location for the first material drop ejected to form the perimeter using a blue noise generator.

System and method for operating a material drop ejecting three-dimensional (3D) object printer to prevent quantization error in perimeters of a three-dimensional printed object

A three-dimensional (3D) metal object manufacturing apparatus is operated to form sloping surfaces having a slope angle of more than 45&#xb0; from a line that is perpendicular to the structure on which the layer forming the slope surface is formed. The angle corresponds to a step-out distance from the perpendicular line and a maximum individual step-out distance determined from empirically derived data. Multiple passes of an ejection head of the apparatus can be performed within a layer to form a sloped edge and the mass of the sloped structure is distributed within the sloped edge so the edge is formed without defects.

Method and apparatus for forming overhang structures with a metal drop ejecting three-dimensional (3D) object printer

System and method for improved infilling of part interiors in objects formed by additive manufacturing systems

A system for three-dimensional printing of an object is provided. The system includes a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium communicatively coupled to the processor and storing instructions that when executed by the processor are configured to cause the processor to perform operations including determine optimized build orientation based on the object and one or more user indicated surface quality characteristics, generate a plurality of layers comprising one or more support polygons, each layer of the plurality of layers corresponding to a slice in a three-dimensional ('3D') printing process, and generate, for each of the one or more support polygons, a corresponding toolpath, wherein a spacing between each generated toolpath is determined based on the user indicated surface quality characteristics.

Controller and 3D printing apparatus for varying density support structures through interpolation of support polygon boundaries with scalar density fields

A system for interactively designing a support structure for a three-dimensionally printed object having user-defined surface quality, the system including a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium communicatively coupled to the processor and storing instructions executable by the processor is provided. When executed, the instructions cause the processor perform operations including receiving a digital model of the object to be three-dimensionally printed, receiving user input related to a desired surface quality at one or more portions of the digital model, determining a printing orientation of the object based on the digital model and the user input; determining a support layout for the object, based on the printing orientation and the user input, and transmitting the support layout, the printing orientation, and the digital model to a three-dimensional printer.

Interactive design tool for varying density support structures

A three-dimensional object model is divided into a plurality of slices that are targeted for an additive manufacturing process having a minimum printable feature size. For each of the slices, a thinning algorithm is applied to one or more contours of the slice to form a meso-skeleton, where topological features of the thinned slice that are smaller than the minimum printable feature size are reduced to skeletal paths. A corrected slice is formed using the meso-skeleton by sweeping the meso-skeleton with the minimum printable feature size. The corrected slices are assembled into a corrected object model and the corrected object model is used in the additive manufacturing process.

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San Mateo, CA, United States of America

Walter Hsiao