3D Printing Around Preformed Structures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Three-dimensional printing is complex and time-consuming, requiring significant time and materials to produce objects with fine detail, making it impractical to start print jobs without ensuring completion.
Innovation Solution
A method that involves obtaining a data file with print instructions for a 3D printer, providing user instructions to position a preformed structure within the object's external surfaces, modifying print instructions to print around the structure, and using the modified instructions to form the object, thereby reducing time and material requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional 3D printing is used to print entire objects from scratch, then complete objects can be produced, but the process requires significant time and materials
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by creating preformed structures (cores) before the main printing process. These cores are manufactured separately and then positioned within the 3D printing workspace, allowing the printer to build around them rather than from scratch. This preliminary preparation reduces the total printing time and material consumption while maintaining the ability to produce complete functional objects.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the object creation process into distinct phases: creating preformed structural cores separately, positioning them in the workspace, and then printing the remaining material around them. This segmentation allows parallel processing and optimization of different manufacturing steps, improving overall productivity and reducing material waste.
2Productivity
If preformed structures are used to reduce printing time and material, then efficiency improves, but the printing process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent achieves universality by designing a system where preformed structures can be used across multiple different printing projects and object types. The same core structures can be repositioned and reused for different final products, reducing the need for custom tooling and simplifying the overall process despite the initial complexity of integrating preformed elements.
3Manufacturing precision
If preformed structures are positioned and printed around, then objects with desired center of gravity and internal voids can be created, but the process requires precise positioning and modified print instructions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual positioning and complex mechanical alignment systems with computational methods. Software algorithms automatically calculate optimal positions for preformed structures to achieve desired center of gravity and internal voids, then generate modified print instructions. This substitution of mechanical complexity with computational intelligence maintains high precision while improving ease of operation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach allows for the efficient use of preformed structures to reduce the time and material needed for printing, enabling the completion of objects with desired center of gravity and internal voids, and recycling defective structures into new objects.
Implementation Method 1
The material may be a thermoplastic polymer filament that is heated and extruded through a narrow nozzle
Implementation Method 2
heated and extruded through a narrow nozzle
Implementation Method 3
Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a process of making a three-dimensional object from a digital model using an additive process, where successive layers of material are laid down over previous layers
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes obtaining a data file that includes print instructions for causing a three dimensional printer to print a three dimensional object, wherein the data file describes external surfaces of the object, and providing user instructions for positioning a preformed structure so that the three dimensional printer can print the object around the preformed structure, wherein the preformed structure has a size and a shape to be subsumed within the external surfaces of the object. The method further comprises modifying the print instructions so that the printer will print the object around the preformed structure, and printing material around the preformed structure using the modified print instructions to form the object.