A support material for use in an additive manufacturing system to print a support structure for a three-dimensional part. The support material includes a base resin that is substantially miscible with a part material used to print the three-dimensional part, and has a glass transition temperature within about 10° C. of a glass transition temperature of the part material. The support material also includes a dispersed resin that is substantially immiscible with the base resin, where the base resin and the dispersed resin are each thermally stable for use in the additive manufacturing system in coordination with the part material.

In a 3D printing method, a first layer of a build material is applied. A part layer is patterned by selectively applying a penetrating liquid functional material (PLFM) on at least a portion of the first layer. The PLFM includes (in amounts by weight based on total wt % of the PLFM): from about 5%-15% of a first metal oxide nanoparticle having a particle size ranging from about 0.5 nm up to 10 nm, from about 0.25%-10% of a second metal oxide nanoparticle having at least one dimension greater than 10 nm, from about 1%-10% of an electromagnetic radiation absorber, from about 5%-50% of an organic solvent, a surfactant, and a balance of water. The first layer having the PLFM applied thereon is exposed to electromagnetic radiation, whereby the portion of the first layer at least partially fuses to form the part layer.

A shaping plate to be set on a shaping stage of a shaping system for performing shaping by an additive manufacturing method includes a water-insoluble base substrate and an underlying layer containing a water-soluble material on at least one surface of the base substrate, wherein the base substrate has a plurality of through holes that extend in the direction intersecting the surface provided with the underlying layer.

A molding system to manufacture a three-dimensional object corresponding to a three-dimensional model. The molding apparatus includes a slice data generation unit to generate slice data from three-dimensional shape data of the three-dimensional model, and a lamination unit to laminate a layer of a molding material on the basis of the slice data. The slice data generation unit analyzes data, and, if a region in which a layer of a second molding material different from a first molding material is to be laminated on a layer of the first molding material and in which it is difficult to laminate the layers is extracted, modifies the data of a region of at least one of an ith layer and an (i+1)th layer to data in which a portion in which the first molding material is disposed and a portion in which the second molding material is disposed.

The invention describes a laser printing system (100) for illuminating an object moving relative to a laser module of the laser printing system (100) in a working plane (180), the laser module comprising at least two laser arrays of semiconductor lasers and at least one optical element, wherein the optical element is adapted to image laser light emitted by the laser arrays, such that laser light of semiconductor lasers of one laser array is imaged to one pixel in the working plane of the laser printing system, and wherein the laser printing system is a 3D printing system for additive manufacturing and wherein two, three, four or a multitude of laser modules (201, 202) are provided, which are arranged in columns (c1, c2) perpendicular to a direction of movement (250) of the object in the working plane (180), and wherein the columns are staggered with respect to each other such that a first laser module (201) of a first column of laser modules (c1) is adapted to illuminate a first area (y1) of the object and a second laser module (202) of a second column (c2) of laser modules is adapted to illuminate a second area (y2) of the object, wherein the first area (y1) is adjacent to the second area (y2) such that continuous illumination of the object is enabled.

A developer comprises: at least one carrier; and, in an amount of 10 wt-% or less, a coating material (237), in particular for generating a coating layer by non-impact printing, the coating material being provided in the form of particles and comprising: a curable resin preferably an at least partially thermal curable resin and even more in particular curable by a crosslinking agent able to react with functional groups of the resin, the resin comprising in particular an amorphous resin portion; wherein an average diameter of the particles is in a range between 1 m and 25 m; and wherein the particles have an average sphericity larger than 0.7, in particular larger than 0.8, in particular a sphericity larger than 0.9; wherein, if the coating material is heated from room temperature with a heating rate of 5 K per minute, the coating material upon heating reduces its viscosity down to a minimum viscosity and increases its viscosity upon further increase of the temperature; wherein the minimum viscosity is in a range between 3 Pascal seconds and 20000 Pascal seconds.

A non-impact printing device (301) comprising: a coating material (237) being curable and comprising a resin; the coating material comprising an amorphous resin portion in an amount of at least 30 w-% based on the overall amount of resin and comprising with respect to the entire amount of coating material less than 0.5 w-% of flow additive; a printing unit, in particular an electrophotographic printing unit, being configured for printing the coating material (237) so as to form a coating layer, wherein the coating layer forms at least part of a layer package comprising at least one layer; the non-impact printing device being configured for providing the layer package so as to define a surface structure with the layer package; wherein the surface structure is defined by a thickness variation of the layer package; wherein the thickness variation is in a range between 1 m and 1000 m, in particular in a range between 1 and 300 m, and is in particular more than 1 m, in particular more than 5 m, in particular more than 10 m and in particular more than 20 m.

Coating material (237) for generating a coating layer by non-impact printing wherein the coating layer represents an image and wherein a resolution of the image is at least 100 DPI, the coating material comprising a curable resin; wherein the coating material (237) exhibits a minimum viscosity when being heated from room temperature with a heating rate of 5 Kelvin per minute up to a temperature where curing of the coating material occurs, wherein the minimum viscosity is in a range between 3 Pascal seconds to 20000 Pascal seconds, in particular in a range between 50 Pascal seconds and 10000 Pascal seconds and further in particular in a range between 250 Pascal seconds and 7000 Pascal seconds; and wherein a pill flow length is below 350 mm at a potential curing temperature which may be used to cure the coating material.

A power regulation circuit including an input from an alternating current (AC) power supply, a load element connected to the AC power supply input, a dummy power resistor connected in parallel with the load element, and a controller to dynamically control power to the load element and to the dummy power resistor in response to a variation in the power consumption of the load element.

A stabilizing liquid functional material (SLFM) for 3D printing includes ceramic nanoparticles in an amount ranging from about 0.25% to about 5% by weight based on a total SLFM weight and silica nanoparticles present in an amount ranging from about 0.1% to about 10% by weight based on the total SLFM weight. The ceramic nanoparticles have a particle size ranging from about 5 nm to about 50 nm. The silica nanoparticles have a particle size ranging from about 10 nm to about 50 nm. The ceramic nanoparticles and the silica nanoparticles are different in composition and/or morphology. An electromagnetic radiation absorber is present in an amount ranging from about 1% to about 10% by weight based on the total SLFM weight. An organic solvent is present in an amount from about 5% to about 50% by weight based on the total SLFM weight. The SLFM includes a balance of water.