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

Update 48.      BRIEF Highlights 9/5/06 to 12/5/06:

206 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 more than 5,000 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 48.

ISSUED PATENTS and PATENT APPLICATIONS PUBLISHED

Technology

• General Motors Corp. has received a patent for a method of 3D printing of aluminum and magnesium parts. Aluminum and/or magnesium particles are coated with a metal that prevents oxidation and forms an alloy with the main build material.

• The University of Texas has applied for a patent on a method of using direct writing inkjet technology to incorporate electronic circuitry within additively fabricated parts. The function may be integrated directly within a stereolithography system.

• The next-generation of 3D Systems' photopolymer-based technology has been disclosed this quarter in several patents. One describes the use of an endless transparent belt to provide thin layers of photopolymer at the top of a build stack. Area-wise exposure is done through the belt using a deformable mirror device (DMD) or similar optical method. See Fig. 1.

        

• A new material approach describes a way to get around inaccuracy problems caused by binder shrinkage in three dimensional printing. Very small glass particles are adhered to the surface of the main build material particles. As the binder cures, the glass particles act as tiny spacers to maintain the position of the build material particles in the matrix. See Fig. 2.

• Road wheels for tracked vehicles are the subject of a patent assigned to GS Engineering, Inc. Additive fabrication is said to allow the production of complex hollow features that optimize weight and inertia. Such wheels might be used, for example, on military vehicles like tanks or on commercial earth-moving equipment. See Fig. 3.

• A small implantable glucose sensing system for diabetes treatment and control is described in three patent applications published this period. The work addresses overcoming problems of the human foreign body response which causes materials to be deposited on sensors which interfere with ongoing measurement.
          

   

  
• A patent application has been published concerning a microfluidic sperm isolation and insemination device for in vitro fertilization and other applications. Stereolithography may be used to form the complex channels. See Fig. 4.

• A sorting device with complex channels can be made using additive fabrication according to a recent patent application. Many uses are foreseen but the main one may be for sorting out sub-standard rice grains from a product stream. See Fig. 5.

• Two patents have been applied for on ultrasonic inspection tools and standards. Additive fabrication is said to make it much faster and less expensive to create such devices. Savings can be considerable since a typical composite step wedge standard costs thousands of dollars to fabricate at present. See Fig. 6.

• Adrian Marshall (UK) has written a patent application that should make the manufacture of candies and other three dimensional novelty shaped food items like Gummi Bears faster as well as easily customizable. Wheels are fabricated by stereolithography with quadrant sections of the final product shape desired arranged around their periphery. Several such wheels are run together, rather like a rotating extrusion die, to form a continuous stream of feed material into the final desired shapes. See Fig. 7.

        

• The University of Florida Research Foundation, Inc. has had a patent application published for a frameless stereotactic guidance device. This custom-made frame is used to position a patient during surgery and other medical procedures and is said to improve accuracy and comfort for the patient. See Fig. 8.

• A device to maintain open airways and combat sleep disorders may be made by rapid prototyping according to a patent application by Prospex Medical II, Inc. Many medical conditions may require a customized device made by additive fabrication. See Fig. 9.

        

• Great Lakes Orthodontics, Ltd. has been granted a patent for an orthodontic bracket and bonding method that incorporates a light emitting diode (LED) that can be used to cure the bracket's bonding adhesive in place. The method is said to overcome problems of variability associated with current clinical methods and to provide fast, consistent and stronger bonding. See Fig. 10.