Back to results
US 9,168,698 B2Granted
Three-dimensional printer with force detection
AssigneeMakerBot Industries, LLC
InventorsAljosa Kemperle, Filipp Gelman, Peter Joseph Schmehl
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An extruder or other tool head of a three-dimensional printer is instrumented to detect contact force against the extruder, such as by a build platform or an object being fabricated. The tool head may also be instrumented to detect deflection forces and the like acting on the tool that might indicate an operating error. The resulting feedback data can be used in a variety of ways to control operation of the three-dimensional printer during fabrication or diagnostics.
Claims15
A method comprising:
- identifying build instructions for fabricating an object;
- initiating a build using a three-dimensional printer comprising a fabrication tool and one or more sensors mechanically coupled to the fabrication tool, the one or more sensors configured to detect a current contact force between the fabrication tool and a separate structure;
- detecting the current contact force based on a sensor signal from the one or more sensors;
- and
- creating a control signal to control at least one component of the three-dimensional printer in response to the current contact force while depositing material during the build.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.