Solid freeform fabrication using a plurality of modeling materials
AssigneeObjet Ltd.
InventorEduardo NAPADENSKY
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Abstract
A system and methods for solid freeform fabrication of an object is disclosed. The system comprises a solid freeform fabrication apparatus having a plurality of dispensing heads, a building material supply apparatus configured to supply a plurality of building materials to the fabrication apparatus, and a control unit configured for controlling the fabrication apparatus and the supply apparatus based on an operation mode selected from a plurality of predetermined operation modes.
Claims27
A method of solid freeform fabrication of an object, the object having a plurality of regions, the method comprising:
- (a) inputting data pertaining to shapes of the object and each of the plurality of regions;
- (b) for at least one region:
- (i) defining a plurality of sub-regions within said region and attributing a property to each sub-region;
- (ii) for each sub-region, selecting a modeling material and/or a modeling material combination according to said attributed property of said sub-region, thereby selecting a plurality of modeling materials or modeling material combinations;
- and
- (c) dispensing said modeling materials or modeling material combinations in a layerwise manner according said input data and said attributed properties so as to form the three-dimensional object.
A system for solid freeform fabrication of an object having a plurality of regions, comprising:
- a solid freeform fabrication apparatus having a plurality of dispensing heads;
- a building material supply apparatus configured to supply a plurality of building materials to said fabrication apparatus;
- and
- a control unit configured to receive data pertaining to shapes of the object and each of the plurality of regions, to define within at least one said region a plurality of sub-regions each being attributed at least one property, to select, for each sub-region, a modeling material and/or a modeling material combination according to an attributed property of said sub-region, and to control said fabrication apparatus and said building material supply apparatus to dispense modeling materials or modeling material combinations in a layerwise manner according said received data and said attributed properties.
A computer software product, comprising:
- a computer-readable medium in which program instructions are stored, which instructions, when read by a computer, cause the computer to receive data pertaining to shapes of an object and each of a plurality of regions thereof, to define within at least one of said regions a plurality of sub-regions each being attributed at least one property, to select, for each sub-region, a modeling material and/or a modeling material combination according to an attributed property of said sub-region, and to output said modeling material and/or a modeling material combination to a control unit of a solid freeform fabrication system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.