3-d printer with gas exchange mechanism for removing contaminants during re-coating
AssigneeDivergent Technologies, Inc.
InventorsBroc William TenHouten, Eahab Nagi El Naga
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Abstract
Techniques for cleaning a print chamber using a gas exchange structure and a re-coater are introduced. The gas exchange structure is coupled to the coater, and the two move in a same direction to benefit from the gas flow. In an embodiment, the gas exchange structure includes a manifold. Further, in an embodiment, a travelling wall may be coupled to a longitudinal axis of the re-coater in order to keep separate the clean chamber from the dirty chamber. The result is that gas contaminants caused largely by the fusion and melting processes are removed from the powder bed and chamber at each cycle, and the resulting 3-D produced component maintains a very high quality for a long period of time.
Claims24
An apparatus to produce a three-dimensional (3-D) structure, comprising:
- a re-coater disposed within a build chamber, the re-coater for traveling over a powder bed to deposit powder layers during a re-coat cycle, each layer being selectively exposed to an energy source during a print cycle following the re-coat cycle to produce the 3-D structure;
- and
- a gas exchange structure configured to travel with the re-coater to remove contaminated gas and to add clean gas during the re-coat cycle.
A method for producing a three-dimensional (3-D) structure, comprising:
- performing a re-coating operation in a build chamber within which the 3-D structure is produced, wherein a re-coater disposed within the build chamber travels over a powder bed to deposit powder layers during a re-coat cycle, each layer being selectively exposed to an energy source during a print cycle following the re-coat cycle to produce the 3-D structure;
- and
- performing a gas exchange with a gas exchange structure configured to travel with the re-coater to remove contaminated gas and to add clean gas during the re-coat cycle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.