The Rapid Prototyping
Patent Museum

6. Rapid Manufacturing

Rapid manufacturing is widely hailed as one of the major opportunities for additive fabrication technologies in the future. The patents listed were selected mainly to demonstrate the breadth of applications that have already been considered and recognized in the legal sense. The list could be much wider still, if published patent applications were included. Nevertheless, sizes range from integrated circuits to large earth boring bits used for drilling for oil. Materials range from metal, ceramics and plastic to cookie and cake dough.

What the applications for rapid manufacturing (RM) or as it is increasingly being called, direct digital manufacturing (DDM), have in common is that they take advantage of some aspect of the RP process. This can be of a similar nature to fields such as tooling and medicine where high geometric complexity, the use of multiple materials or lower tooling costs are the driving forces, but in some cases inventors are simply taking advantage of the side-effects of the processes themselves. For example, the porous nature of parts made by selective laser sintering or other powder-based technologies may be a disadvantage in many applications. But if you’re making filters, batteries or gas storage components, a process that inherently provides porous parts might be the very best way to make a product.

*Patent Museum Navigation*
1. Historically important 2. Basic technology patents	3. Rapid Tooling 4. Important RP technology improvements	5. Medical RP Applications 6. Rapid Manufacturing

Year US Patent No. Title Inventor Assignee or Resulting Commercial Entity Technology Area

6. Rapid Manufacturing

1995 5433280 Fabrication method for rotary bits and bit components and bits and components produced thereby Smith; Redd H. Baker Hughes Incorporated -

1998 5728345 Method for making an electrode for electrical discharge machining by use of a stereolithography model Hlavaty; David Gerard, Ashtiani-Zarandi; Mansour General Motors Corporation -

1999 5997795 Processes for forming photonic bandgap structures Danforth; Stephen C. ; Safari; Ahmad ; Ballato; John ; Van Weeren; Remco ; Bandyopadhyay; Amit . Rutgers University . -

2000 6095145 Prophylactic Sadlo; Frank C. None -

2001 6251488 Precision spray processes for direct write electronic components Miller; W. Doyle ; Keicher; David M. ; Essien; Marcelino Optomec Design Company -

2001 6280771 Dosage forms exhibiting multi-phasic release kinetics and methods of manufacture thereof Monkhouse; Donald ; Yoo; Jaedeok ; Sherwood; Jill K. ; Cima; Michael J. ; Bornancini; Esteban Therics, Inc. ; Massachusetts Institute of Technology -

2001 6280784 Method for rapidly making a 3-D food object Yang; Junsheng ; Wu; Liangwei ; Liu; Junhai Nanotek Instruments, Inc -

2001 6287428 Mold with integral screen and method for making mold and apparatus and method for using the mold Gale; Gregory W. ; Haugen; Jeffrey J. Regale Corporation -

2001 6322728 Mass production of dental restorations by solid free-form fabrication methods Brodkin; Dmitri ; Panzera; Carlino ; Panzera; Paul Jeneric/Pentron, Inc. -

2001 6326698 Semiconductor devices having protective layers thereon through which contact pads are exposed and stereolithographic methods of fabricating such semiconductor devices Akram; Salman Micron Technology, Inc. -

2002 6401859 Custom-molded ear-plug and process for producing a custom-molded ear-plug device Widmer; Christoph ; Hessel; Hans ; Weidmann; Markus Phonak AG (Switzerland) -

2002 6447584 Filters employing porous strongly acidic polymers Kishkovich; Oleg ; Rezuke; Robert W. ; Kinkhead; Devon Extraction Systems, Inc. -

2002 6471520 Model of complex structure and method of making the same Herman; Timothy M. ; Gervasi; Vito R. ; Bray; Thomas E. ; Adler; Deborah S. Milwaukee School of Engineering -

2003 6520219 Method and apparatus for storing compressed gas Shapovalov; Vladimir I. ; Loutfy; Raouf O. Materials and Electrochemical Research Corporation -

2003 6549710 Method of making a three dimensional optical circuit Simmons; Richard L. ; Shoemaker; Curtis L. ; Kornele; Kenneth L. ; Loder; Harry A. ; Lurie; Edward B. 3M Innovative Properties Company -

2003 6553823 Model for wind tunnel test Omotani; Hideo ; Oyama; Hiroki ; Kobayashi; Masaki Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Japan) -

2003 6568455 Jewelry making method using a rapid prototyping machine Zieverink; Robert M. None -

2006 7093542 Warhead with integral, direct-manufactured features Gousman; Kenneth G.; Van Weelden; Scott D.; Rosenberger; Brian T. Lockheed Martin Corporation laser powder forming (LPF)

Year US Patent No. Title Inventor Assignee or Resulting Commercial Entity Technology Area

Use the Prev | Next links provided on each page to proceed sequentially through the entire patent list, although not precisely in the order the entries appear in the table. Links provided in the "Technology Area" column will take you to pages within the WWGRP site that either briefly explain the method, or to directory listings or archived materials where more information can be found. You can also use the site search function and main index to uncover additional information.

The Rapid Prototyping Patent Museum

6. Rapid Manufacturing

The Rapid Prototyping
Patent Museum