Abstract: The present disclosure provides additive manufacturing apparatuses and maintenance methods. For example, in one embodiment an additive manufacturing apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes a reservoir configured to contain additive manufacturing material and a supply conduit for interconnecting the reservoir with a print head. The apparatus further includes a regulator configured to control pressure of additive manufacturing material in the print head to trigger purging of the print head and an air-ink separator configured to receive a mixture of air and purged additive manufacturing material. The air-ink separator is configured to reclaim at least a portion of the additive manufacturing material from the mixture.

Abstract: An apparatus to help control the quality of printed three-dimensional objects is provided. The apparatus may include a printing head to print a three-dimensional object and a printing tray having defined surface characteristics serving to control adherence of the object being printed to the printing tray and/or prevent deformations in the printed object.

Abstract: Apparatus for producing an object by sequentially forming thin layers of a construction material one on top of the other responsive to data defining the object, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of printing heads each having a surface formed with a plurality of output orifices and controllable to dispense the construction material through each orifice independently of the other orifices; a shuttle to which the printing heads are mounted; a support surface; and a controller adapted to control the shuttle to move back and forth over the support surface and as the shuttle moves to control the printing heads to dispense the construction material through each of their respective orifices responsive to the data to form a first layer on the support surface and thereafter, sequentially the other layers; wherein each printing head is dismountable from the shuttle and replaceable independently of the other printing heads.

Abstract: A system and method for building three dimensional objects may adjust data used to build the objects to, for example, improve quality or correct for defects. A printer may, for example, accept data representing the object and modify the data according to an adjustment parameter; the printer may build the object according to the parameter. The parameter may be, for example, calculating an adjustment parameter in an X-Y slice plane to compensate for inaccuracies caused by diffusion of materials into one another.

Abstract: A system and method for building three dimensional objects may adjust data used to build the objects to, for example, improve quality or correct for defects. A printer may, for example, accept data representing the object and modify the data according to an adjustment parameter; the printer may build the object according to the parameter. The parameter may be, for example, fixed in the printer, user entered, and/or calculated by the printer. In one embodiment, a support pedestal may be built of deposited material before the object is built.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for controlling modeling material supply in a three-dimensional object-printing system (100). The apparatus may include one or more cartridges (180) containing modeling materials that may be connected via a set or matrix of valves (175) to the three-dimensional object printing system (100). Sensors (185) associated with the cartridges (180) may continuously or periodically monitor the status of the material within the cartridges. The controller receives data about the material presently available in each cartridge (180) and computes supply parameters for the available materials in the various cartridges (180).

Abstract: A process of, and apparatus for, three-dimensional printing of an object (200) from modeling material (220) including a printing tray (170) having a surface coating (202), a carpet (210), a support material (215), a support pedestal (210), a barrier layer (230) and a temperature control unit (204).

Abstract: An apparatus and a method are provided for printing or building three-dimensional object. The method and apparatus may, for example, dispense material from a printing head to form a layer of an object being built, and alter the thickness of a layer of the dispensed material to a pre-determined height using an object correcting apparatus. Excess material may be efficiently removed, and may be hardened before disposal, for example, using radiation and/or cooling. The object correcting apparatus may include, for example, a roller and a cleaning apparatus to remove material from the roller. The roller may operate at selected speeds and directions, and may be heated and/or cooled, to help in effectively altering dispensed material.

Abstract: Divergent X-ray beams of a computerized tomographic system are used for reconstruction with parallel reconstruction algorithms by determining "sets" of the divergent X-ray beams after passage through the patient at a number of angularly spaced positions within the angle subtended by the divergent beams. The determined sets are reordered, filtered and rebinned to obtain laterally spaced parallel filtered data that are backprojected to form the tomographic image. Corrections are made on the detected divergent beams to prevent "cupping" and to assure that the image has correct CT numbers.