The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 21, 2000
Filed:
Apr. 23, 1998
Ampere A Tseng, Phoenix, AZ (US);
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (US);
Abstract
An improved system for forming a three-dimensional object by selective deposition of a forming material includes a crucible for holding a reservoir of the forming material, an orifice disposed in the bottom of the crucible through which the forming material flows towards the substrate, and a droplet deposition apparatus for generating a sequence of droplets from said flow of forming material and for selectively depositing the droplets on a substrate exclusively where required to form the three-dimensional object. In a preferred embodiment, the forming material is ejected from the crucible as a variable-diameter circular liquid jet or planar jet, which breaks up into a sequence of variable-diameter droplets. Drops to be discarded are electrically charged and deflected away from the substrate by an electromagnetic deflecting device.