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US 10,118,338 B2Granted
Additive manufacturing with integrated microliter resin delivery
AssigneeLawrence Livermore National Security, LLC
InventorsJoshua R. Deotte, Xiaoyu Zheng
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An additive manufacturing system utilizing an oxygen-permeable membrane to facilitate low-volume printing and high-speed resin change in a stereolithography-based 3D printer. The membrane is used to constrain the fluid surface at the focal plane of the stereolithography printer and a carrier fluid is used to hold the fluid against the membrane. The small amount of resin is quickly switched using integrated microfluidic channels.
Claims7
An additive manufacturing apparatus for building a structure, comprising:
- a reservoir, wherein said reservoir has one reservoir side and an opposite reservoir side;
- an immiscible fluid in said reservoir;
- a substrate in said reservoir that is totally immersed in said immiscible fluid;
- an oxygen permeable and optically transparent membrane operatively connected to said reservoir, wherein said oxygen permeable and optically transparent membrane is positioned to extend from said one reservoir side to said opposite reservoir side;
- a microliter amount of curable resin;
- a delivery system for delivering said microliter amount of curable resin to said reservoir in contact with said immiscible fluid in said reservoir, wherein said microliter amount of curable resin is contained in said reservoir by said immiscible fluid, said oxygen permeable and optically transparent membrane, and said substrate;
- an elevator system in said reservoir for moving said substrate and said microliter amount of curable resin;
- and
- an energy source adapted to deliver energy to said reservoir through said oxygen permeable and optically transparent membrane onto said microliter amount of curable resin for building the structure.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.