Method and system for fabricating object featuring properties of a blood vessel
AssigneeStratasys, Inc.
InventorsDaniel Dikovsky, Amit Feffer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A tubular structure fabricated by additive manufacturing from non-biological building material formulations, and featuring an elongated core, a shell encapsulating the core and an intermediate shell between the core and the shell. Each of the core, the shell and the intermediate shell is made of a different material or a different combination of materials. Both the core and the intermediate shell are sacrificial. Additive manufacturing of the tubular structure is usable for fabricating an object featuring properties of a blood vessel.
Claims9
A method of additive manufacturing of at least one tubular structure featuring properties of a blood vessel, the method comprising:
- receiving, as input, image data describing a shape of a blood vessel;
- converting said image data to computer object data;
- receiving as input hardness levels along said blood vessel;
- accessing a computer readable medium storing a lookup table having a plurality of entries each corresponding to a different range of hardness levels, and being associated with at least one additive manufacturing parameter selected from the group consisting of a building material formulation, a combination of building material formulations, and a wall thickness;
- extracting additive manufacturing parameters from said lookup table based on said input hardness levels;
- and
- operating an additive manufacturing system according to said extracted additive manufacturing parameter to form a plurality of layers in a configured pattern corresponding to said shape of said blood vessel;
- wherein said operating said additive manufacturing system comprises forming an elongated core, a shell encapsulating said elongated core and having said shape of said blood vessel, and an intermediate shell between said core and said shell, wherein each of said core, said shell and said intermediate shell is formed by dispensing a different building material formulation or a different combination of building material formulations, and wherein both said core and said intermediate shell are sacrificed;
- wherein one of said elongated core and said intermediate shell is formed by dispensing a building material formulation which provides, upon exposure to a curing condition, a liquid or liquid-like material characterized by at least one of:
- a viscosity of no more than 10000 centipoises;
- Shear loss modulus to Shear storage modulus ratio greater than 1;
- a Shear modulus lower than 20 kPa;
- flowability when subjected to a positive pressure of no more than 1 bar;
- a shear-thinning and/or thixotropic behavior;
- and
- a thermal-thinning behavior.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.