Patent ID: 6375874
Filing Date: 2002-04-23
Classification: B22F,B29C,B29K,B33Y,B41J,Y02P

Abstract:
A system for fabricating a three-dimensional object from a representation of the object stored in a memory, the system comprising:in a work area, a deck having a length along a longitudinal axis and a width along a transverse axis, the deck having a feed aperture, a build aperture and an overflow aperture therethrough it along the longitudinal axis, the overflow aperture having a width greater than the widths of the feed aperture and the build aperture; a build chamber coupled to the build aperture and a movable build piston bounded by an interior wall; a feed chamber coupled to the feed aperture and a movable feed piston bounded by an interior wall; an overflow chamber coupled to the overflow aperture; a movable gantry suspended over the deck; a plurality of cleanable binder jets movably coupled to the gantry; in a clean area a controller in communication with the build piston, the feed piston, the gantry and the binder jets, the controller executing instructions for: filling the binder jets with a pressure-controlled binder liquid colorable with dyes; transferring build material from the feed chamber to the build chamber as incremental layers of build material; variably depositing volumes of the colorable binder liquid at selected positions on each layer of build material, the binder liquid binding regions of the build material together based on cross-sectional representations of the object stored in the memory, the binder jets being offset relative to adjacent layers of build material; moving a first quantity of waste build material along the deck and into the overflow cavity; at least a partial seal separating the clean area from the work area; and a mechanism to improve the quality of the fabricated object.