Patent ID: 7887316

Claim:
A laser sintering powder recycle system comprising: (a) a laser sintering machine in which a layerwise build process is performed to produce at least one three-dimensional object, the laser sintering machine comprising a dense phase conveying device for transferring an amount of overflow powder from a receiving device within the laser sintering system directly to a powder feed hopper within the laser sintering system, wherein the overflow powder is kept within the laser sintering system; (b) a breakout station for receiving a part cake that includes the three-dimensional object from the laser sintering machine and an amount of unfused powder surrounding the three-dimensional object, the breakout station comprising a separation device for separating the unfused powder into recovered powder and spent powder and further comprising a dense phase conveying device for transferring the recovered powder from the breakout station to the powder feed hopper of the laser sintering system; (c) a virgin powder supply from which virgin powder is transferred to the powder feed hopper of the laser sintering system; and (d) a powder processing unit that comprises: (i) a recovered powder inlet for receiving the recovered powder from the breakout station; (ii) a virgin powder inlet for receiving the virgin powder from the virgin powder supply; (iii) a blender vessel for blending and storing combinations of recovered powder and virgin powder; and (iv) a dense phase conveying device for transferring the combined recovered and virgin powder from the blender vessel to the powder feed hopper of the laser sintering machine.