Abstract: A method of monitoring an amount of building material in a cartridge that supplies the material to an additive manufacturing system, comprises introducing gas into the cartridge and measuring the pressure within the cartridge. When the pressure reaches a predetermined level, the amount of building material in the cartridge is determined based on a volume of gas introduced into the cartridge or based on a proxy of the volume.

Abstract: An apparatus and methods for extracting water from air with desiccants is disclosed. In some embodiments, the apparatus includes a reactor (i) for flowing hot dry air through a water saturated desiccant to desorb water therefrom into the hot dry air to obtain humidified hot air or (ii) for flowing an external airflow through the desiccant to obtain the water saturated desiccant. The first heat exchanger transfers heat from the humidified hot air to the cold dry air to obtain humidified cool air and warm dry air. The second heat exchanger removes excess heat from the humidified cool air toward outside of the apparatus to cool the humidified cool air, to obtain water and cold dry air. The heater produces hot dry air for flowing through the water saturated desiccant. The flow paths of hot dry air, humidified hot air, humidified cool air, and cold dry air are in a closed-loop.

Abstract: A method of monitoring an amount of building material in a cartridge that supplies the material to an additive manufacturing system, comprises introducing gas into the cartridge and measuring the pressure within the cartridge. When the pressure reaches a predetermined level, the amount of building material in the cartridge is determined based on a volume of gas introduced into the cartridge or based on a proxy of the volume.