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:
Feb. 06, 2007
Filed:
Jun. 01, 2004
William J. Swanson, St. Paul, MN (US);
Mihnea A. Popa, Roseville, MN (US);
Patrick W. Turley, Eden Prairie, MN (US);
Paul E. Hopkins, Savage, MN (US);
Steve Brose, Belle Plaine, MN (US);
William J. Swanson, St. Paul, MN (US);
Mihnea A. Popa, Roseville, MN (US);
Patrick W. Turley, Eden Prairie, MN (US);
Paul E. Hopkins, Savage, MN (US);
Steve Brose, Belle Plaine, MN (US);
Stratasys, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN (US);
Abstract
A filament cassette and a filament loading assembly supply modeling filament to a liquifier in a three-dimensional deposition modeling machine. Two or more cassettes containing spooled filament are inserted into the machine. A strand of filament from a first one of the cassettes is fed to the liquifier for extrusion. Without operator intervention, the filament strand from the first cassette is withdrawn from the liquifier, and a filament strand from a second one of the cassettes is fed to the liquifier. The switching of filament feed sources is triggered by an event, such as an identification that the filament from the first cassette has reached a predetermined minimum length. In this manner, a used primary filament cassette is automatically replaced with a standby filament cassette, so that the machine need not experience downtime waiting for an operator to change the cassettes.