Support fabrication techniques in three-dimensional printing
AssigneeMakerBot Industries, LLC
InventorsJoseph Sadusk, Filipp Gelman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The strength of a bond between two adjacent layers of a three-dimensional print is weakened by initiating fabrication of a top layer at a height greater than the processing height for the print. This technique may be used in particular at the interface between a raft or other support and an object being fabricated, after which the printing process may return to a regular process height for additional layers used to fabricate the remainder of the object.
Claims20
A computer program product for operating a three-dimensional printer comprising non-transitory computer executable code embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performs the steps of:
- determining a processing height for depositing each of a plurality of layers in a three-dimensional print;
- fabricating a support for an object in the three-dimensional print including fabricating a top layer of the support on a plurality of intermediate layers of the support, the top layer fabricated at a distance from an underlying intermediate layer no greater than the processing height;
- fabricating an initial layer of the object on the top layer of the support with an exit port of an extruder at a first height, wherein the initial layer is extruded at a distance from the top layer greater than the processing height, thereby forming a relatively weak bond between the top layer of the support and the initial layer of the object;
- and
- fabricating a subsequent layer of the object on the initial layer of the object, wherein the subsequent layer is extruded at a distance no greater than the processing height from a top of the initial layer of the object such that the extruder is closer to the initial layer of the object when forming the subsequent layer of the object than the extruder was to the top layer of the support when forming the initial layer of the object, thereby forming a relatively strong bond between the initial layer of the object and the subsequent layer of the object.
A system comprising:
- a three-dimensional printer having an extruder;
- and
- processing circuitry associated with the three-dimensional printer and configured to determine a processing height for depositing each of a plurality of layers in the three-dimensional print, to fabricate a first layer of the three-dimensional print at a distance from an underlying layer substantially equal to the processing height to form a support structure for an object, to fabricate a second layer of the three-dimensional print on the support to form an initial layer of the object, wherein the second layer is extruded at a distance from a top of the first layer greater than the processing height, thereby forming a relatively weak bond between the first layer and the second layer, and to fabricate a third layer of the three-dimensional print on the initial layer of the object, wherein the third layer is extruded at a distance no greater than the processing height from a top of the second layer, thereby forming a relatively strong bond between the second layer and the third layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.