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Assignee3D Systems, Inc.
InventorsCharles W. Hull, Jouni Partanen, Ray Soliz, William J. Pappas, Mehdi Mojdeh
Estimating the term…
Solid imaging apparatus and methods for use are disclosed that reduce the amount of uncured solid imaging build material remaining on a completed build object following the completion of the solid imaging build process. The amount of uncured build material is reduced through the use of either an uncoating web that removes excess build material from the build object during the course of the building process or an ink jet source of build material that uses only as much build material as is necessary for the fabrication of the build part. Also disclosed is an imager assembly for use with such a solid imaging apparatus that incorporates two or more individual imagers in an array and accounts for variations in the intensity and alignment of adjacent imagers. The apparatus can be modified for semi-continuous operation and for integrating into a manufacturing operation, if desired.
A method for solid imaging comprising the steps of transporting a layer of solid imaging build material to the surface of a build, imaging selected portions of the layer in an image plane to solidify the selected portions onto the build, removing unsolidified build material from the build, and repeating said steps of transporting, imaging, and removing to build a three-dimensional image, wherein the step of transporting a layer of solid imaging material to an image plane comprises contacting a source of solid imaging material with a reciprocating transport surface to provide a layer of build material on the transport surface, and translating the reciprocating transport surface to an image plane wherein translation and reciprocation substantially preclude relative motion of the layer of build material at the image plane.
A method for solid imaging comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.