Delayed Cure Additive Manufacturing Mold
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional molding techniques face limitations in fabricating parts with complex shapes and materials, as they require pre-fabricated molds that are costly to refine and produce parts with anisotropic mechanical properties.
Innovation Solution
The manufacturing process employs additive manufacturing techniques, where a solid mold is incrementally fabricated alongside the part using a phase change mechanism to solidify the mold material and a polymerization mechanism to cure the build material, allowing for continuous mold refinement and improved mechanical properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional molding techniques are used with pre-fabricated molds, then manufacturing precision and reliability are maintained, but adaptability and ease of manufacture deteriorate due to costly mold refinement requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameters of the mold by using curable materials that can transition from uncured to cured states. This allows the mold to be refined and modified after fabrication by adding more material and re-curing, enabling design changes without requiring complete mold replacement or expensive refinement processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the mold dynamic by using materials that can change state and structure over time. The mold evolves from an initial fabricated state to a refined state through iterative material deposition and curing cycles, allowing continuous adaptation to design requirements.
2Manufacturing precision
If conventional molding techniques are used, then manufacturing process simplicity is maintained, but manufacturing precision deteriorates for complex shapes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the manufacturing process into distinct stages: initial mold fabrication, iterative material deposition, and curing cycles. This segmentation allows complex shapes to be built up layer by layer with precise control at each stage, achieving high manufacturing precision for complex geometries.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds the dimension of time and iteration to the manufacturing process. Instead of a single-step molding operation, the process evolves through multiple cycles of material deposition and curing, enabling precise fabrication of complex three-dimensional shapes that would be difficult with conventional single-stage molding.
3Manufacturing precision
If additive manufacturing is used with delayed curing, then adaptability and manufacturing precision improve, but device complexity increases due to dual mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by fabricating the mold and depositing build material in an uncured state before final curing. This allows the material to be shaped and positioned with high precision during the deposition phase, and then locked into place through subsequent curing, achieving manufacturing precision while managing complexity through staged processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the curing action from the material deposition process, separating it into distinct phases. The build material is deposited in an uncured state allowing for flexibility and precision in shaping, then curing is applied separately to finalize the structure, reducing the complexity of coordinating both actions simultaneously.
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 enables the production of parts with complex shapes and improved mechanical properties, offering a more agile design process and producing isotropic polymers with uniform structures, beyond the capabilities of conventional molding techniques.
Implementation Method 1
the material for the mold solidifies to form the solid mold
Implementation Method 2
The polymerization mechanism occurs after, or at least partly after, the additive fabrication of the object during the curing stage
Data Source
AI summary
A method for manufacturing a part includes fabricating an object in an additive fabrication stage, the object including a solid mold forming a cavity in the shape of a part with uncured or incompletely cured build material disposed therein. The build material in the cavity is cured in a curing stage that occurs at least partially after the additive fabrication stage. The build material undergoes a phase change mechanism occurring during the additive fabrication stage and a distinct polymerization mechanism occurring during the curing stage and at least partly after the additive fabrication stage of the object and cures the build material by a polymerization process.