Patent ID: 9636868
Date: 2017-05-02
CPC Classifications: B29C,B29L,B33Y

Claim:
1. An additive manufacturing system for printing three-dimensional parts, the system comprising: a build environment having a first length; a print head within the build environment, the print head configured to print a part material along a printing axis; a receiving surface configured as a build plane oriented substantially normal to the printing axis, the receiving surface configured to receive the printed part material from the print head to build the three-dimensional part in a layer-by-layer manner to a selected part length where the part length is greater than the first length of the build environment; and a drive mechanism configured to index the receiving surface along the printing axis such that the receiving surface and at least a portion of the three-dimensional part move out of the build environment as the three-dimensional part is being built in the layer-by layer manner.