Covering All Technology and Application Areas of Additive Fabrication Including:
RAPID PROTOTYPING    3D PRINTING    RAPID TOOLING    RAPID MANUFACTURING

Update 68.      BRIEF Highlights 9/7/11 to 12/7/11:

A stultifying 366 US RP patents and patent applications were published during this three month period. The original material reviewed for this update is aproximately 9,200 pages. Obviously, this summary can't provide a complete picture of all important developments, and certainly not at these prices. You can get it all, though, and for much less money than it's worth. A detailed analysis, with complete information about each patent and application published during the period is available at low cost. This indexed, Acrobat pdf format report is approximately 300 pages long and includes well over 250 illustrations. Review the entire contents rapidly by category, or quickly page through to make sure you know what's happening in the complex world of Additive Fabrication technology. Here are a FEW highlights from Update 68.

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ISSUED PATENTS and PATENT APPLICATIONS PUBLISHED

Technology

• Materials Solutions (UK) describes the use of a rotating build plate in laser sintering in its just-issued patent. By rotating the plate according to the geometry of the part being built, it's possible to make delicate, high-aspect ratio parts such as gas turbine blades more accurately and without damaging them during the recoating process. See Fig. 1.

• MTT Technologies Ltd. (UK) has applied for several patents concerning laser sintering/selective laser melting (SLM) technology. One patent application is aimed at solving an underappreciated problem in all these related technologies which is the cost of the base upon which parts are built. The disposable base described is said to potentially save as much as $1,700 in the case of a run of making titanium parts as well as the effort of refinishing the base after each use. See Fig. 2.
  

  
  

  

• NextEngine, Inc. is the likely assignee for a patent application by Mark Knighton. The additive technology discussed has both fine and coarse deposition heads, subtractive capabilities such as a milling head, and built-in scanning means. Layer fabrication can be adjusted based on the feedback results obtained during the build from the scanner. See Fig. 3.

• 3D Systems describes a method for cooling the part cake in laser sintering in its patent application. The cake is physically compressed by moveable walls in the build chamber and nitrogen or another inert gas is forced through the pore volume to rapidly cool it. The compression prevents part distortion and an inert gas blanket is applied during the procedure to prevent discoloration. The process can be carried out within the machine or in a chamber which can be removed from the machine.

• Raytheon Company describes the use of additive technology to fabricate complex optical shrouds for sensors in missile nose cones. The shrouds provide both protection and the ability to occlude all but the appropriate radiation, such as the infrared of the exhaust of a targeted aircraft. See Fig. 4.

• microTec Gesellschaft fur Mikrotechnologie mbH (Germany) is the assignee for a patent on a method for producing micro-systems that have both mechanical and electronic functions. Over many years the company has developed several photopolymer-based technologies that can produce very high volumes of small complex parts. This patent combines the transfer of electrical components and conductors from a film carrier with those technologies to produce fully-functional systems.
  

  
  

• A patent application from Airbus Operations Limited (UK) describes a non-obvious advantage of additive technologies in making and attaching composite parts. By adding a series of pointed prongs during fabrication to a composite part in a specific area of the part, it's possible to provide an integral joining capability. Using conventional nuts and bolts would make it necessary to make the joint layer thicker and heavier to compensate for the required holes to obtain the same strength. See Fig. 5.

• Inventors Gojko Obradovic et al (Denmark) describe the use of a resonator channel in a completely-in-canal (CIC) hearing aid. This spiraling tube amplifies the sound and is said to provide the performance of a behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid in a much smaller device. See Fig. 6.

• Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing has applied for a patent on a heat exchanger for liquid cooling of high power electronic components. While the use of additive methods is unlikely in high-volume hybrid automobiles, Toyota's most likely intended application, there are numerous low-volume applications where the invention could deliver advantages. See Fig. 7.
  

  
  

• In its patent application Empire Technology Development LLC describes a microreactor with a curved pathway that is useful for reactions where a product might precipitate out and needs to be separated from a fluid stream. It's said to be useful for a variety of chemical and biological reactions and can also be combined with measurement functions. See Fig. 8.

• Northwestern University describes the use of stereolithography to make synthetic mother of pearl (nacre) in its patent. The tough, smooth composite is said to be potentially useful in many applications such as aircraft skin, armor materials, prosthetic coatings and many others. See Fig. 9.

Materials

• The Boeing Company has received a patent for direct to metal sintering of 17-4PH steel. The material offers corrosion-resistant ferrous parts that can have a wide range of properties such as improved elongation, tensile strength and cycle performance. Boeing also had a patent application published this period for other aspects of the material.

• Rhodia Operations (France) proposes nylon 6 or 6-6 to make laser sintering materials according to its patent application. Uniform particle size and sphericity is said to lead to uniform mechanical properties and high density parts.

Engineering & Design

• Microsoft Corp. has applied for a very ambitious patent for an integrated development environment. The rapid device development system described would completely automate the design of new products. It integrates fundamental components - from batteries and displays, to driving software, to the mechanical environment to hold it all together. The system then can pop out PC board designs and STL files to additively manufacture prototypes.

• Inventor Ginger Dosier of the American University in the United Arab Emirates uses a Fab@Home system to develop construction materials using enzyme producing bacteria in her patent application. The development of such materials could lead to an enormous drop in carbon emission, 40% of which is generated by manufacturing in the construction industries. A summary article on the invention is located here:
  Printable Brick Could Cut World's Carbon Emissions by "At Least" 800 Million Tons a Year...

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology describes the use of multi-media technology as training and demonstration aids for medicine and perhaps other fields in its patent. Data from MRI, CTI or other scanning devices is projected onto the surface of a volumetric model generated by additive technology. Sections of this physical model can be removed or added and the projected data set updated accordingly. See Fig. 10.
  

  
  

• Some of the most imaginative approaches seen lately to implantation and surgery are being pursued by Smith & Nephew, Inc. In its present patent application, the surgeon's tools are guided using a local positioning system based on infrared or RF technology. The guidance system is coupled directly to the patient's scanned anatomy data and uses customized surgical tools - essentially lowering the manual skills needed by the surgeon. See Fig. 11.

• A patent application by The Japan Science and Technology Agency (Japan) is said to solve an important problem in the use of stereolithography in patient-contacting applications. The technique described removes all cytotoxicity from tissue engineering scaffolds by binding all free monomers.