Abstract: A modular three-dimensional printer frame including a z-stage frame adapted to support a build platform, a damper frame connected to the z-stage frame adapted to support a print head, a mount arranged between the z-stage frame and the damper frame, and a damper arranged between the z-stage frame and the damper frame. The damper frame is mounted to the z-stage frame by arranging a first damper between a damper frame to a z-stage frame; arranging a first mount between the damper frame and the z-stage frame; and aligning the damper frame and the z-stage frame with the first mount.

Abstract: A printer head for a three-dimensional printer includes a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) disk configured to generate a plasma, where the DBD disk requires a high voltage alternating current (AC) voltage signal to generate the plasma. The printer head also includes a transformer assembly including a transformer and a housing that contains the transformer. The transformer is configured to transform an incoming AC voltage signal into the high voltage AC signal for the DBD disk. The printer head also includes an electrical wire that electrically connects the transformer to the DBD disk. The printer head also includes a wire guide defining a passageway, where a portion of the electrical wire is received by the passageway in the wire guide. The passageway of the wire guide is shaped to direct the electrical wire towards the DBD disk.

Abstract: In vat polymerization printer, light is projected from a digital light processing (DLP) light source towards an opening in a tank containing photo-curable liquid resin. A mask is used to filter the light from the DLP light source, the mask having pixels configurable to be individually transparent or opaque to portions of the light from the DLP light source. In a build area of the tank, the filtered light is used to cure the photo-curable liquid resin so as to form a layer of a partially formed object. The operation of the DLP light source is synchronized with the operation of the mask, such that light from the DLP light source with high intensity is transmitted through the transparent pixels of mask and light from DLP light source with low intensity is blocked by the opaque pixels of mask. The mask may enhance the resolution of DLP light source.

Abstract: A light engine for a three-dimensional printer includes a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged into respective groups, each respective group of LEDs including one or more LEDs, e.g., LEDs of different wavelengths. Corresponding to each respective LED group is a respective light pipe for receiving outputs of radiation from each the LEDs of the respective group and providing an output of the light pipe, and a respective telecentric optical system for collimating the output of the respective light pipe to provide a collimated output of the respective LED group. The respective telecentric optical system of each LED group includes a plurality of lenses, an absorber for constraining high angle rays of electromagnetic radiation propagating from the respective light pipe, and a crosstalk filter arranged to prevent rays of electromagnetic radiation propagating between adjacent ones of the light pipes of the light engine through the telecentric optical system.

Abstract: In a vat polymerization printer, a beam scanner scans a light beam across a mask and into a tank containing a photo-curable resin. The mask has pixels configurable to be individually transparent or opaque to portions of the light beam, which has a diameter greater than a cross-sectional dimension of the pixels of the mask. During an exposure time duration, a first subset of the pixels are controlled to be transparent at locations corresponding to the cross section of a three-dimensional object to be printed, while a second subset of the pixels are controlled to be opaque at locations not corresponding to the cross section of the three-dimensional object. The beam scanner is controlled to scan the light beam across the mask such that the light beam is always incident on at least one of the pixels of the mask that are controlled to be transparent.

Abstract: A machine for producing additive printed parts having a print head attached to a gantry, including a frame having a plurality of side walls that define an interior space, a build table positioned within the interior space and including a print bed for supporting the additive printed part, a plurality of bellows attached at a first end to the gantry and at a second end to at least one of the plurality of side walls, a build volume defined by the plurality of side walls, the plurality of bellows and the build table, and an infrared heater disposed on the build table for heating an additive printed part positioned on the build table.

Abstract: Methods and systems for forming objects through photo-curing of a liquid resin in a tank by selective exposure (through a mask) to radiation, in which during printing operations the liquid resin in the tank is displaced relative to the build area along an axis orthogonal to that along which the object is extracted from the liquid resin in the tank. A volume of the photo-curing liquid resin may be cycled through a cooling arrangement by being extracted from the tank, cooled, and then reintroduced into the tank as printing of the object is taking place. The mask is preferably one in which charged colorant particles are dispersed in an optically transparent fluid within a plurality of bi-state cells.

Abstract: In vat polymerization printer, light is projected from a digital light processing (DLP) light source towards an opening in a tank containing photo-curable liquid resin. A mask is used to filter the light from the DLP light source, the mask having pixels configurable to be individually transparent or opaque to portions of the light from the DLP light source. In a build area of the tank, the filtered light is used to cure the photo-curable liquid resin so as to form a layer of a partially formed object. The operation of the DLP light source is synchronized with the operation of the mask, such that light from the DLP light source with high intensity is transmitted through the transparent pixels of mask and light from DLP light source with low intensity is blocked by the opaque pixels of mask. The mask may enhance the resolution of DLP light source.

Abstract: A 3D printing system may include a tank in which a bottom of the tank is formed by a flexible membrane. The flexible membrane may be stretched within a frame, which together with the flexible membrane may form a membrane assembly that is secured to the tank sidewall by one or more hinged clamps. Each of the hinged clamps may comprise an arm and an angled member. The distal end of the arm may comprise a hooked attachment member that is complementary in shape to a lip of the frame of the membrane assembly. The proximal end of the arm may be attached to the angled member by a hinge. The angled member may be attached to the tank sidewall by another hinge. The angled member and the arm may be positioned to clamp the membrane assembly to the tank sidewall, or release the membrane assembly from the tank sidewall.

Abstract: A 3D printing system may include a tank in which a bottom of the tank is formed by a radiation-transparent flexible membrane, a spill tray with an outer wall configured to contain liquid resin that inadvertently leaks out from the bottom of the tank, and a light source configured to project radiation towards the bottom of the tank. The spill tray may contain an inner opening that allows the radiation from the light source to pass through the spill tray to the tank. A 3D printing system may also include a mask assembly which comprises a mask with pixels configurable to be individually transparent or opaque to portions of the radiation projected from the light source and a mask assembly receiving member configured to receive the mask assembly. The mask assembly may also include a rigid guide portion that is insertable into a slot of the mask assembly receiving member.

Abstract: Described are methods and apparatus for the inspection of cured layers of an object during the fabrication of the object using a 3D printing system. A just-printed layer may be inspected by pressing the layer against a pressure-sensitive surface in order to collect information about the layer. For example, a tank may contain a photo-curing liquid polymer, and at its bottom are pressure sensitive elements (e.g., in a backing member or mask). An extraction plate to which the object is affixed may be adjusted so as to position a surface of the object adjacent to the pressure sensitive elements, which report a pressure distribution (e.g., by virtue of a force exerted by a localized region of the object on a localized region of the pressure sensitive elements).

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for forming three-dimensional objects by photo-curing a photo-curing liquid polymer exposed to a radiation in a space between a base transparent to the radiation and a supporting plate. The supporting plate moves progressively, in some cases continuously, away from said transparent base during the printing process, and that movement is characterized in that it is tilting, swinging, rotating, and/or swirling in three-dimensional space, based on the print geometry, in order to expedite printing speed and resin propagation throughout the build area. In one embodiment, the movement may resemble a spiral or helical path from the standpoint of points around its circumference.

Abstract: A design with multiple instances of a three-dimensional article is printed by first defining a unit cell that includes a single instance of a three-dimensional article that repeats in the design along with its nearest neighbor elements in both a plane of a build plate of a target printer on which the design is to be printed and a plane orthogonal thereto. The design is represented in an output file of a design application and a slicer application then generates instructions to manufacture the design by the target printer. The instructions (g-code) include directions to print, for each of a specified number of layers a number of instances of the unit cell that can be accommodated within a build envelop of the target printer per layer as determined by said slicer application. The design is printed by the printer according to the instructions from the slicer application.

Abstract: A tank assembly for a 3D printing system may include a membrane assembly that is releasably secured to a bottom rim of a tank sidewall of the tank assembly. The securing mechanism may include one or more of a friction-fit coupling and a magnetic coupling. The membrane assembly may include a frame, a radiation-transparent flexible membrane and a membrane securing member. A peripheral portion of the flexible membrane may be secured within a groove of the frame by the membrane securing member. The tank sidewall may include one or more components for supplying fresh resin to the tank assembly and one or more components for draining used resin from the tank assembly.