Additive manufacturing roller within radiative heat transfer area
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsBrent Ewald, Eric Collins
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Some examples include a fusing system for an additive manufacturing machine including a carriage movable across a build zone along the x-axis, a thermic source mounted to the carriage, and a roller mounted to the carriage adjacent to the thermic source. A longitudinal section of an exterior surface of the roller is exposed to indirect heat from the thermic source. The roller is controlled to rotate during and outside of a spreading operation of the build material. The carriage is to maintain the roller within a radiative heat transfer area of the thermic source.
Claims15
A fusing system for an additive manufacturing machine, the fusing system comprising:
- a carriage movable across a build zone of the additive manufacturing machine along an x-axis;
- a thermic source mounted to the carriage;
- a roller rotatably mounted to the carriage adjacent the thermic source, the roller vertically translatably mounted to the carriage to have a lowered position during a spreading pass of the carriage over the build zone for spreading of build material and a raised position during a fusing pass of the carriage over the build zone for fusing of the build material;
- and
- a controller configured to rotate the roller in the lowered position within a radiative heat transfer area receiving heat from the thermic source during the spreading pass, to vertically translate the roller from the lowered position to the raised position, and to rotate the roller in the raised position within the radiative heat transfer area receiving heat from the thermic source during the fusing pass.
A method of operating a fusing system of an additive manufacturing machine to form a three dimensional object, the fusing system including a carriage to which a thermic source is mounted and to which a roller is vertically translatably mounted adjacent the thermic source to have a lowered position and a raised position, the method comprising:
- during a spreading pass of the carriage over a build zone, rotating the roller in the lowered position for spreading build material while maintaining the roller within a radiative heat transfer area receiving heat from the thermic source;
- vertically translating the roller from the lowered position to the raised position;
- and
- during a fusing pass of the carriage over the build zone, continuing to rotate the roller in the raised position during fusing of the build material while maintaining the roller within the radiative heat transfer area receiving heat from the thermic source.
An additive manufacturing machine, comprising:
- a dispensing assembly including a printhead mounted to a dispensing carriage to selectively dispense a fusing agent;
- a build chamber to contain a build material and the fusing agent;
- a fusing system including a fuser carriage to which a thermic source is mounted and to which a rotatable roller is vertically translatably mounted adjacent the thermic source to have a lowered position and a raised position, the rotatable roller to spread and heat the build material during a spreading pass of the fuser carriage over a build zone, the thermic source to heat and fuse the build material during a fusing pass of the fuser carriage over the build zone, and the fuser carriage to maintain the rotatable roller within a radiative heat transfer area receiving heat from the thermic source during the spreading and fusing passes;
- and
- a controller configured to rotate the rotatable roller in the lowered position within the radiative heat transfer area receiving heat from the thermic source during the spreading pass, to vertically translate the rotatable roller from the lowered position to the raised position, and to rotate the rotatable roller in the raised position within the radiative heat transfer area receiving heat from the thermic source during the fusing pass.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.