Patent ID: 11865776
Assignee: REM3DY HEALTH LIMITED
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 15:
16. A 3D printer for printing consumable items, the 3D printer comprising:
a print head arranged to position nozzles of a plurality of liquid dispensers to define a regular polygon around a first Z axis;
an actuator device operable to dispense a portion of liquid from each liquid dispenser wherein the actuator device comprises
a drive plate having a drive face with plurality of syringe plunger locations arranged in the regular polygon and a pair of parallel support rails defining a channel between them and having flanged sections spaced from the first support plate and extending towards one another, the plurality of syringe plunger locations being defined between the support rails,
first and second retention plates, each retention plate including a plurality of retention slots that extend into the retention plate from a first edge and have arcuate end faces which, when the first and second retention plates are inserted into opposite ends of the channel, with the syringe plungers located at the syringe plunger locations, overlap the syringe plungers to grasp the syringe plungers, and
one or more linear actuators coupled between the drive plate and the block to linearly move the drive plate towards the block to dispense liquid from the syringes;

a print bed comprising a print zone, the print zone comprising a plurality of print locations arranged to define a regular polygon around a second Z axis;
a translation device operable to move the print bed relative to the print head along X and Y axes; and
a rotation device operable to cause relative rotation between the print zone and the print head such that, with the first Z axis aligned with the second Z axis, the actuator is operable to dispense liquid from each liquid dispenser simultaneously onto each of the print locations and thereafter the rotation device is operable to cause relative rotation between the print zone and the print head to place each respective one of the print locations in registration with a different one of the nozzles.