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AssigneeImpossible Objects, Inc.
InventorsRobert Swartz, John Bayldon, Buckley Crist, Eugene Gore
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A method, product, apparatus, and article of manufacture for the application of the Composite Based Additive Manufacturing (CBAM) method to produce objects in metal, and in metal fiber hybrids or composites. The approach has many advantages, including the ability to produce more complex geometries than conventional methods such as milling and casting, improved material properties, higher production rates and the elimination of complex fixturing, complex tool paths and tool changes and, for casting, the need for patterns and tools. The approach works by slicing a 3D model, selectively printing a fluid onto a sheet of substrate material for each layer based on the model, flooding onto the substrate a powdered metal to which the fluid adheres in printed areas, clamping and aligning a stack of coated sheets, heating the stacked sheets to melt the powdered metal and fuse the layers of substrate, and removing excess powder and unfused substrate.
A three-dimensional article of manufacture comprising a plurality of substrate layers that are infiltrated or coated by, and bound together by, a hardened material, such that the hardened material has a material composition that is different from the material composition of any of the plurality of substrate layers, wherein the hardened material comprises metal, wherein all of the plurality of substrate layers have a substantially identical material composition and each substrate layer is a sheet-like structure that has a material composition comprising fibers held together by a binder.
a three-dimensional article of manufacture made by the process comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.