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

Update 58.      BRIEF Highlights 3/10/09 to 6/9/09:

A mind-blowing 250 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 aproximately 6,300 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 more than 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 58.

ISSUED PATENTS and PATENT APPLICATIONS PUBLISHED

Technology

• The University of Montreal (Canada) is the likely assignee for a patent application from Louis Laberge-Lebel et al. A process that can make free-standing structures is described which uses photopolymer extruded from a guided nozzle. The material is immediately cured by light after emerging from the nozzle. See Fig. 1.

• Envisiontec GmbH (Germany) has applied for patents on aspects of its photopolymer-based technology which used deformable mirror devices (DMDs) for exposure. One describes a method of continuously-variable exposure that permits parts to be literally grown. The method is currently used in the company's Xcede™ system.

• Honeywell International, Inc. has received a patent for a hot gas valve disc used as a switching element in attitude control systems for rockets or missiles. The device uses two layers of material that are each optimized for grain size and/or orientation.

• One of the more interesting patent applications published in this category this period is from inventor Zvika Gilad (Israel). This application is a for a pill-shaped TV camera that can be swallowed. microTEC mbH's (Germany) RMPD™ technology is used to fabricate the components. See Fig. 2.

• Rosemount, Inc. has received a patent for a pressure sensor using near net shape laser sintered ceramics. The integrally-formed device comprises two ceramic cell halves with an internal sintered ceramic diaphragm.

• The Boeing Company's patent for a directly-manufactured, self-contained parts kit is likely intended for aerospace applications as far as that organization is concerned. However, there could certainly be many other fields such as medicine and dentistry that may benefit from the basic idea of making both a container and a kit of parts to perform a specific task simultaneously. In addition, building a porous container around the parts would make it much easier to blow or shake away excess build material and not lose any small items in the powder bed, say for example, in laser sintering. See Fig. 3.

• Corning Inc. has applied for a series of patents concerning membrane structures and related items that address a wide variety of industrial and environmental filtration applications. Three dimensional printing and other additive processes may be used to make the devices. Water filtration, capture of CO2, scrubbers for smokestacks and absorbents for heavy metals are among the applications described.

  

• Qinetic Ltd. (UK) has applied for a patent on an axial-flow impeller. The design is said to result in much quieter air flow which is accomplished by breaking the large air stream into many smaller streams using a complex channel geometry. Over the course of time it may be possible to exploit this general approach for many applications that could benefit from quieter cooling. Additive fabrication may both aid in the study, and then end up being the only way to manufacture such devices. See Fig. 4.

• Sony Corp. (Japan) describes the custom fabrication of micro-beads. Contemplated applications are for processes such as liquid chromatography where the beads might be coated with specific substances to take part in chemical reactions or physical interactions.

• The Cabot Corp. describes using direct write technology to customize circuit boards for such applications as displays and automotive electronics in its just-issued patent. Surface mount or other types of standard electronic packages mounted to a PCB are subsequently interconnected with conductors and passive devices formed by additive fabrication to provide customized functions.

  

• Cisco Technology, Inc. has applied for a patent on a light pipe mounting interface made by additive fabrication. As is often the case in electronics, an indicator LED may be mounted on a printed circuit board remotely from a front panel which may be the only place where an operator could observe it. Injection molded plastic light pipes are often used to bring the light to that location, but the tooling costs can be prohibitive if volumes are low. Stereolithography and other additive methods would allow such complicated light pipes to be made economically in small numbers. See Fig. 5.

• Craig Gifford and Scott Nielson disclose a method of making customized artificial fingernails in their patent application. Scanned and digitized nail surfaces are used to form the basis for customized nails that may be made using stereolithography or a variety of CNC methods. See Fig. 6.

• Nike Inc. describes the use of additive fabrication to make partially-customized footwear in its published patent application. Components that are conventional in nature are joined with personalized components made by rapid manufacturing techniques. Also mentioned are such items as watch bands, hockey equipment, chest protectors, etc.

• The Boeing Company is the assignee for a patent describing a titanium alloy for use in laser sintering. A lower melting point material is used to bond the titanium particles into a preform.

• A colloidal suspension in a photopolymer is used make ceramic and metallic parts by stereolithography according to a patent application from Kwang-Leong Choy (UK). The parts made can have fine features, good microstructure and uniformity. Particular emphasis is placed on making cerium oxide rings and the like for use in applications such as fuel cells and glass coatings.

• Daimler AG (Germany) has been granted a patent for a ceramic metal casting mold. The porous mold is said to be capable of precision casting fine steel parts and has the same thermal coefficient of expansion as the steel itself. See Fig. 7.

• Inventor William Nordquist has been granted a patent for an implantable brace to treat a fracture of a horse's leg. The fracture is scanned, bone is removed and a custom implant device inserted which may be made by additive fabrication.

• Complex hydraulic skeletons for medical devices can be manufactured by three dimensional printing and other additive techniques, which simulate the outward pressure and tone of living tissue according to a patent application by Mady Attila. Devices made that incorporate such features may include endotracheal tube cuffs, endoscopic devices and the like. This allows better mating to, and less fatigue of, the contacted tissue of the patient as well as fine static control of surface geometries and device movement. See Fig. 8.

• Two patent applications from Enrique Saldivar and Jennifer Orje this period provide an interesting view of how additive fabrication can be used in unexpected ways to help design instrumentation. The authors have developed an instrument to measure blood platelet contractility as a means of studying blood clotting. A 300X scale model of a clot was constructed and used to determine the fluid dynamics within the instrument. The authors have previously received patents for work in this field. See Fig. 9.