US 6,596,224 B1 · Jetting layers of powder and the formation of fine powder beds thereby

Abstract

A powder bed (32) is built up by repeated deposition of a slurry that contains powder. Layers are made by depositing a liquid dispersion of the desired powdered material, which then slip-casts into the forming powder bed to make a new layer (34). The slurry may be deposited in any suitable manner, such as by raster or vector scanning, or by a plurality of simultaneous jets that coalesce before the liquid slip-casts into the bed, or by individual drops, the deposits of which are individually controlled, thereby generating a regular surface for each layer.

Claims56

Dependent claims

A method for creating a powder containing body, said method comprising the steps of:

a. providing a support;
b. over a selected area of said support, depositing a liquid slurry that contains a first powdered material in a continuous stream to form a first layer of powdered material;
c. maintaining said deposited layer of powdered material under conditions such that the liquid content of said first layer is reduced;
d. depositing a binder material at selected regions of said layer, which binder will cause said layer to become bound at said selected regions, and successive layers to become bound to each other at said selected regions;
and
e. over a portion of said selected area of said support, depositing liquid slurry in a continuous stream to form an additional layer region.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

09/445,670Filed 1 Mar 2000 · us provisional application

Priority

24 May 1996

Granted

22 Jul 2003

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification15 codes

B29C 41/36
Component parts, details or accessories; Auxiliary operations: feeding the material on to the mould, core or other substrate
B22F 10/14
Formation of a green body: by jetting of binder onto a bed of metal powder
B22F 12/53
Means for feeding of material, e.g. heads: nozzles
B29C 41/003
Shaping by coating a mould, core or other substrate, i.e. by depositing material and stripping-off the shaped article; Apparatus therefor:…

Jetting layers of powder and the formation of fine powder beds thereby

Life of this patent

Jetting layers of powder and the formation of fine powder beds thereby

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims56