Patent ID: 6966960

Claim:
A method of fabricating a three-dimensional object, the method including the steps of: providing a film that is fusible into a non-water soluble state when exposed to heating, the film being a mixture of thermoplastic particles and a water-soluble polymer matrix, the film further including a surfactant system bound to the thermoplastic particles, the surfactant system providing an inversion property such that the thermoplastic particles are hydrophilic but, upon a fusing of the film into a bulk, become hydrophobic as the surfactant become incorporated into the bulk; positioning layers of the film sequentially along a build axis and, for each of the layers before a subsequent layer is positioned, heating areas of the layers that are to be fused together to form a fused three-dimensional object; and dissolving non-fused portions of the layers with water to reveal the fused three-dimensional object.