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

Update 50.      BRIEF Highlights 3/6/07 to 6/6/07:

217 US RP patents and patent applications were published during this three month period. It's estimated that the original material reviewed for this update is nearly 5,500 pages. Obviously, this summary can't provide a complete picture of all important developments. 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 more than 200 pages long and includes nearly 200 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 RP technology. Here are a FEW highlights from Update 50.

ISSUED PATENTS and PATENT APPLICATIONS PUBLISHED

Technology

• Hewlett Packard has received a patent on a method of improving the finishes of parts made with inkjet technologies. By controlling the pulse frequency in a drop-on-demand system, drops can be made to fuse together in transit resulting in a continuous stream. See Fig. 1.

• A method of electrochemical manufacturing which is analogous to inkjet fabrication has been revealed. Multiple discrete electrolyte jets are used to selectively deposit or etch metals or other materials which are appropriate for electrodeposition. The technology is said to be an improvement on the EFAB process by doing away with the need for masks. The authors also discuss several operating regimens and the fabrication of graded materials.

• SonicBlue Aerospace, Inc. is the likely assignee for a patent application written by Richard Lugg. Additive fabrication is used to make graded-index parts for a hybrid jet/electric turbine engine (called advanced hypersonic magnetic jet/electric turbine AHMJET). The company is a start-up engaged in designing aircraft that will use electrically-driven fans for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), and gas turbines for forward propulsion. The system is claimed to be considerably more energy-efficient than other schemes. See Fig. 2.

• A series of patent applications by Huang et al has been published that hold the prospect of being able to separate, measure, alter or enrich circulating tumor cells or other specific particles from a living organism's blood stream. Specific cells are caused to separate from the main fluid stream by running them through what amounts to a miniature obstacle course. Once free of the main stream they can be worked on with a focused intent that can't be accomplished with more scattershot approaches. The work has profound implications for many medical diagnoses and treatments. See Fig. 3.

• Osram Sylvania Inc. describes using stereolithography to make a ceramic bulb for a high pressure discharge lamp. After sintering, the material becomes translucent to allow light transmission. The claimed advantages are fast fabrication without tools. The component could also be made by other additive processes.

        

• Cranial Technologies, Inc. has applied for a patent on a process of automatic selection of trim lines for the data defining a cranial remodeling device. These patient-specific devices can be made by additive fabrication and are designed to treat head deformities in infants.

• Inventor Christopher Flaherty has had his patent application published which describes the fabrication of implanted electrode arrays. These complex structures may be used to control artificial limbs and other neurologically-complex functions. See Fig. 4.

• A patent has been issued for a method of making customized gun components, such as stocks and grips by sending data over a network to additively fabricate complex parts. What's most interesting is that it is written generally enough to interfere with other fields such as medicine, dentistry and other that basically use the same scheme. See Fig. 5.

• Inventor Christian Hamm-Dubischar (Germany) has had a patent application published for a method of adapting the designs of nature to produce optimized lightweight structures and parts. The author adapts the geometries of such species as diatoms to the design of items such as wheels, among other things. See Fig. 6.