Patent ID: 11919238
Assignee: STRATASYS, INC.
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. A method of printing a part with an additive manufacturing system, comprising:
providing a first portion of the part formed of a thermoplastic material in a series of adhered layers, wherein the first portion includes an outer surface that is at a temperature below a material-specific bonding temperature;
actively pre-heating the outer surface of the first portion of the part across a plurality of adhered layers and along an upcoming tool path to the temperature at or above a material-specific bonding temperature and below a degradation temperature of the thermoplastic material;
extruding molten thermoplastic material onto the outer surface of the first portion of the part across the plurality of layers and along the pre-heated tool path to form a newly extruded road wherein the newly extruded road forms a contact edge for printing a second portion of the part while the temperature along the pre-heated tool path remains at or above the material-specific bonding temperature and below the degradation temperature, wherein the additional thermoplastic is the same as or different from the thermoplastic material forming the first portion of the part, thereby forming the newly extruded road bonded to the first portion of the part that becomes the second portion of the part; and
actively cooling the newly extruded road to remove heat imparted by the preheating step and the extruding step in a localized region of the part being printed based upon known tool paths and part geometries such that a thermally stable temperature in a the localized region of the newly extruded road is reached such that a minimum return time is reduced in at least the localized region, wherein the steps of actively preheating, extruding and actively cooling are performed in a rapid cyclic fashion in less than ten seconds, and wherein performing said steps of actively preheating and actively cooling in such rapid cyclic fashion results in increased interlayer adhesion between the newly extruded road and the first portion of the part.