Contour crafting extrusion nozzles
AssigneeUniversity of Southern California
InventorBehrokh Khoshnevis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automated extrusion construction system may include an extrusion nozzle configured to extrude construction material in a substantially horizontal direction against an elongated and substantially vertical surface. An extrusion nozzle may have a height adjustment mechanism configured to adjust the height of an outlet in response to level deviations in the surface on which the construction material is extruded by the extrusion nozzle. An automated extrusion construction system may include a slicing mechanism configured to controllably slice through the extruded layer.
Claims10
An automated extrusion construction system comprising:
- an extrusion nozzle configured to extrude construction material from an outlet in the extrusion nozzle in a substantially horizontal direction against an elongated and substantially vertical surface that was previously extruded by means other than the outlet, and in a direction that is substantially perpendicular to the surface;
- a nozzle positioning system configured to controllably move the extrusion nozzle to different positions;
- and
- a controller configured to direct the nozzle positioning system to move the extrusion nozzle across the substantially vertical surface in a substantially horizontal direction while the extrusion nozzle is extruding the construction material so as cause a substantially horizontal strip of the construction material to be extruded from the extrusion nozzle onto the substantially vertical surface.
An extrusion nozzle configured to extrude construction material in a substantially horizontal direction against an elongated and substantially vertical surface, the extrusion nozzle including an outlet from which the construction material is extruded the outlet having a leading perimeter edge which is in the front of and a trailing perimeter edge which is at the rear of the extrusion nozzle during movement in the horizontal direction, wherein the leading perimeter edge extends laterally further than the trailing perimeter edge, wherein the outlet has a top perimeter edge which is at the top of the extrusion nozzle during the horizontal movement, and wherein the outlet is configured such that the top perimeter edge extends laterally further than both the leading and the trailing perimeter edges.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.