There is disclosed an ink composition for three dimensional (3D) printing. The ink composition comprises: a liquid dispersion of tungsten carbide (WC) particles and cobalt (Co) particles, and, a carrier vehicle for the dispersion of tungsten carbide particles and the dispersion of cobalt particles. The ink composition is of a viscosity usable with ink jet print heads for 3D printing.

Apparatus (1) for additively manufacturing three-dimensional objects (2) by means of successive layerwise selective irradiation and consolidation of layers of a build material (3) which can be consolidated by means of an energy source (4), wherein a control unit (6) is provided that is adapted to receive or generate encrypted object data relating to at least one three-dimensional object (2) to be built in a, in particular additive, manufacturing process performed on the apparatus (1), wherein the or a control unit (6) is adapted to decrypt the encrypted object data for performing the additive manufacturing process.

A method and system to dry crack-free and high strength skin including an inorganic binder of an average particle size (D.sub.50) in a range between 10 nm and 700 nm on a porous ceramic body. The method includes supporting the honeycomb body on an end face such that axial channels and outer periphery are substantially vertical. A gas is flowed past the honeycomb body substantially parallel to the axial channel direction, substantially equally around the outer periphery of the skin, to uniformly dry the skin to form a partially dried skin under mild conditions. Then the partially dried skin may be dried more severely resulting in rapidly dried crack-free and high strength skin.

A disclosed system includes an additive manufacturing printer that performs a layer by layer three-dimensional printing process generating a casting mold based on a three-dimensional numerical specification. The numerical specification is based on a desired casting shape, including internal features such as hollow areas formed by cores, and is further based on a thermo-mechanical model of a casting process. The numerical specification describes variations in material and geometric properties of one or more layers of the casting mold corresponding to variations in the thermal and mechanical properties of the casting processes, as predicted by the thermo-mechanical model. The system may vary the thickness of features of the casting mold, based on predicted cooling rates, to reduce cooling non-uniformities and to provide for controlled, predictable cooling of the casting. The system may further generate trusses and heat sinks in the mold to respectively strengthen and weaken various features of the mold.

A machine for dry decoration of ceramic slabs or tiles, comprising: —a deposit plane (50); —a distributor unit (D), arranged to dispense, in a controlled manner, a ceramic compound in granular or powdered form, formed by two or more different ceramic materials; —a storage container (F), interposed between the distributor unit (D) and the deposit plane (50) to store a certain quantity of ceramic compound dispensed by the distributor unit (D), and comprising an unloading opening (0) arranged to allow the deposit of the ceramic compound on the deposit plane (50); wherein the storage container (F) and the deposit plane (50) are in relative movement with respect to one another along a longitudinal direction (Y); —a control module, connected to the distributor unit (D) and arranged to control and regulate the dispensing of ceramic compound by the distributor unit (D); The machine comprises one or more sensors (S), connected to the control module and arranged to detect a significant parameter of the quantity of ceramic compound contained in the storage container (F) and to process a corresponding measurement signal; The control module is arranged to regulate the dispensing of ceramic compound as a function of the measurement signal received, so as to maintain a desired amount of ceramic compound inside the container (F).

A mounting adapter for rotatably mounting a tool holding body having first and second surfaces on at least one spider arm of a motor driven rotatable spider assembly of a surface processing apparatus, said mounting adapter comprising: bearing means supported by said second surface; a first aperture extending centrally through said first and second surfaces; a rubber flex pad having a second aperture in vertical registry with and beneath said first aperture; means supporting said rubber flex pad along its periphery and having a third aperture in vertical registry with and beneath said second aperture; an end plug within said third aperture for closing the second aperture, said end plug supporting said flex pad from beneath said third aperture; said rotatable hub of said bearing means including attachment means in the upper portion thereof for facilitating non rotatable attachment to a mounting means adapted for attachment to said spider arm.

An example technique includes extruding, by a tow deposition device, on a tow-by-tow basis, respective impregnated tows of a plurality of respective impregnated tows to form a layer of material on a major surface of a substrate. Each respective impregnated tow includes at least one ceramic fiber and a curable resin coating the at least one ceramic fiber. The example technique includes curing the curable resin to form a cured composite component. An example system includes a tow deposition device, an energy source, and a computing device. The computing device is configured to control the tow deposition device to extrude, on a tow-by-tow basis, respective impregnated tows of a plurality of respective impregnated tows to form a layer of material, and is configured to control the energy source to cure the curable resin to form a cured composite component.

An additive manufacturing system including a two-dimensional energy patterning system for imaging a powder bed is disclosed. The two-dimensional energy patterning system may be used to control the rate of cooling experienced by each successive additive layer. Accordingly, the system may be used to heat treat the various additive layers.

A method for realising a ceramic slab, comprising the following steps: arranging on a first deposition plane (50) a decorated layer (L2) provided with a decoration (200), gradually depositing the decorated soft layer (L2) from a head (H) to a tail (T); gradually transferring the soft layer (L2) by deposition from the first deposition plane (50) to a second deposition plane (83), placed at a lower height than the first deposition plane (50), starting from the tail (T) of the second soft layer (L2), gradually realising a second layer (L3) on the second deposition plane (83).

A method of additively manufacturing a three-dimensional object may be performed using an irradiation sequence that is based at least in part on a predicted location of one or more fume plumes emitted from the powder material when irradiated by a plurality of energy beams. An exemplary method may include determining, with a computing device, an irradiation sequence for selectively consolidating powder material using an energy beam system of an additive manufacturing machine, and providing control commands, from the computing device to the energy beam system, configured to cause the energy beam system to emit a plurality of energy beams to selectively consolidate the powder material.