A felt gripper head contains two regions of felt material each on plates that slide and form a slight angle with respect to each other during engagement with a fibrous substrate material.

A stacker for a 3D printer apparatus contains a positioning conveyor and a support plate hinged to drop on a signal, whereupon a push plate will push a printed and powdered sheet downward and onto registration pins, to form a stacked register of such sheets.

A stacker for a 3D printer apparatus contains a positioning conveyor and a support plate hinged to drop on a signal, whereupon a push plate will push a printed and powdered sheet downward and onto registration pins, to form a stacked register of such sheets.

Embodiments of the present invention provide for a material extrusion system for three-dimensional (3D) printing/additive manufacturing. The material extrusion system can include a nozzle head configured to extrude a liquefied material of variable widths through an adjustable orifice, wherein the nozzle head can change sizes during a line to compensate for wider or thinner wall thickness.

Described herein are additive manufacturing systems and methods for printing 3D objects.

A three-dimensional printing system includes a print bed and a shelf insertion mechanism for inserting a shelf of one or a plurality of auxiliary shelves into a print volume between the print bed and a printer head. A printer assembly is configured to deposit layers of material within the print volume to form one or more objects on a support platform, the support platform including the print bed or an auxiliary shelf that is inserted into the print volume by the shelf insertion mechanism. A controller is configured to control the shelf insertion mechanism to insert an auxiliary shelf between the print bed and a printer head of the system after formation of the objects on that support platform by the printer assembly is complete.

The invention relates to a printing device (10) for a 3D printer. The printing device comprises a metering unit (18) for melting and plasticizing a material (38) to be printed and a delivery unit (14) for printing the material (38) provided via the metering unit (18). The metering unit (18) and the delivery unit (14) are arranged separately from each other and can be connected to each other, wherein the delivery unit (14) can be transported to the metering unit (18) in order to receive material (38) and, in order to connect the delivery unit (14) to the metering unit (18), a nozzle (74) of the delivery unit (14) and a coupling point (62) of the metering unit (18) come into contact with each other.

The invention relates to a printing device (10) for a 3D printer. The printing device comprises a metering unit (18) for melting and plasticizing a material (38) to be printed and a delivery unit (14) for printing the material (38) provided via the metering unit (18). The metering unit (18) and the delivery unit (14) are arranged separately from each other and can be connected to each other, wherein the delivery unit (14) can be transported to the metering unit (18) in order to receive material (38) and, in order to connect the delivery unit (14) to the metering unit (18), a nozzle (74) of the delivery unit (14) and a coupling point (62) of the metering unit (18) come into contact with each other.

Systems and a method determine an amount of printing material powder for 3D printing an object a multi-object printing job. Data on the following is received: a 3D-model of the object, a volume and a surface of the object, data on a thickness of a powder, on characteristics of the build chamber, a volume of a no build zone and a volume of a net build zone, an estimation of a volume of recyclable interstitial powder, on a powder density and on a solid density of the printing material and on a recycling ratio. The following quantities are determined: a volume of the powder layer around the object, a dilated object contribution, the amount of used powder due the dilated object, the amount of lost powder in the no build zone, the amount of lost powder in the net build zone and the amount of printing material required.

Magnesium alloys and a process of manufacturing an article using magnesium alloys. During additive manufacturing, where the magnesium alloy is being deposited in a layer-by-layer manner, solidification of the melted portion of a deposited layer is performed in such a way as to ensure that about 15 percent or more of the portion being solidified includes a non-equilibrium eutectic constituent. This in turn reduces the likelihood of encountering solidification conditions that otherwise would lead to hot tearing problems. Further, upon subsequent heat treatment of the solidified layer, the eutectic constituents that were used for hot tearing resistance are dissolved so that the solidified layer may be returned to a substantially single-phase magnesium matrix such that desirable material properties such as improved flammability point, improved corrosion resistance and one or more of high yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and elongation are promoted.