Patent ID: 11919244
Assignee: LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL SECURITY, LLC
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 9:
10. A volumetric three dimensional (3D) printing system comprising:
a controller;
a container defining a build volume for holding a quantity of optically curable resist used to form a 3D component;
a rotatable stage for supporting the container and rotating the container;
an optical signal source controlled by the controller, which generates an optical curing beam which is projected through the resist, wherein the optical curing beam is adapted to project a plurality of two dimensional (2D) images for selectively photo-curing the resist to form the 3D component; and
a cure monitoring control subsystem having an optical sensing beam source and configured to:
communicate with the controller and to project an optical sensing beam into a first side of the container, the optical sensing beam passing through a full thickness of the resist to, and through, a second side of the container opposite the first side, the optical sensing beam having a wavelength such that it experiences a first level of absorption when passing fully through the resist from the first side to the second side of the container when the resist is in an uncured state, and experiences a second level of absorption which is different than the first level of absorption when passing fully through the resist from the first side to the second side of the container after the resist is cured; and
use a detector configured to receive the optical sensing beam after the optical sensing beam has passed fully through the resist and through the second side of the container, and to use the received optical sensing beam for in situ monitoring a curing of the resist and generating data to:
modify the optical curing beam to help control curing of the 3D component;

and
to create a real time, 3D volumetric cure map of a cure state of an entire quantity of the resist after the 3D component is fully formed using the resist.