Utilization of magnetic particles to improve z-axis strength of 3D printed objects
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsChunliang Lu, Christopher Wolfe, John Ianni, Mark Mercandetti, John Pawlak, Chieh-Min Cheng
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Abstract
A method for improving z-axis strength of a 3D printed object is disclosed. For example, the method includes printing a three-dimensional (3D) object with a polymer and magnetic particles, heating the 3D object to a temperature at approximately a melting temperature of the polymer, and applying a magnetic field to the 3D object to locally move the magnetic particles in the polymer to generate heat and fuse the polymer around the magnetic particles to improve a z-axis strength of the 3D object.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- printing a three-dimensional (3D) object with a print material comprising a polymer and magnetic particles;
- heating the 3D object to a temperature at approximately a melting temperature of the polymer;
- and
- applying an oscillating magnetic field to the 3D object to rotate the magnetic particles back and forth in accordance with a pattern of oscillation in the polymer to create localized heat in various internal locations of the 3D object to fuse the polymer around the magnetic particles.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a plurality of instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
- printing a three-dimensional (3D) object with a print material comprising a polymer and magnetic particles;
- heating the 3D object to a temperature at approximately a melting temperature of the polymer;
- and
- applying an oscillating magnetic field to the 3D object to rotate the magnetic particles back and forth in accordance with a pattern of oscillation in the polymer to create localized heat in various internal locations of the 3D object to fuse the polymer around the magnetic particles.
A method, comprising:
- printing a three-dimensional (3D) object with a print material comprising a polymer and magnetic particles, wherein the magnetic particles have an average particle diameter of 50 nanometers to 3 microns and comprise 3 to 10 weight percent of the print material;
- heating the 3D object to a temperature at approximately a melting temperature of the polymer;
- and
- applying an oscillating magnetic field to the 3D object to align the magnetic particles in the polymer and to rotate the magnetic particles back and forth in accordance with a pattern of oscillation to generate heat that melts regions between layers of the 3D object to fuse the polymer around the magnetic particles and to promote entanglement of polymer chains between the layers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.