Method for digital analytic correction of photoresponsive material reactivity in additive manufacturing

Abstract

The invention discloses a method and system to digitally compensate for reactivity inhomogeneities of a photoresponsive material within a build volume of an additive manufacturing system, which offers significant advantages for the production of high-fidelity and high-accuracy three-dimensional objects. The method comprises a) Providing a digital model of said three-dimensional object, b) defining a sequence of patterns of light () from said digital model, and c) irradiating with each of said patterns of light () according to the defined sequence a photoresponsive material () that is capable of alteration of its material phase upon irradiation by light, thereby creating a three-dimensional distribution of alterations within the photoresponsive material () which physically reproduces said three-dimensional object, thereby creating the three-dimensional object. The step of defining said sequence of patterns of light () involves a compensation of an expected light intensity of said patterns of light () for any deviations of an alteration rate in said photoresponsive material caused by auto-acceleration or auto-deceleration, so as to obtain a constant alteration rate throughout said photoresponsive material (), wherein said compensation is computed from a predicted three-dimensional light dose distribution in the photoresponsive material () and a function describing an alteration response of the photoresponsive material () to light dose.