An ejector for an additive manufacturing printing system is disclosed, including an ejector body having a nozzle, a heating element to heat a solid printing material in the ejector, causing the solid printing material to change to a liquid printing material, and a piston disposed within the ejector body capable of translational motion. The ejector may include a segmented solenoid coil wrapped at least partially around the ejector body, which may be powered to cause the piston to translate along a longitudinal axis of the ejector thereby causing one or more drops of the liquid printing material to be jetted out of the nozzle. A method of ejecting liquid from an ejector is also disclosed, including melting a printing material within an ejector to form a liquid printing material, and moving a piston towards an ejector nozzle, and ejecting a drop of liquid printing material from the ejector nozzle.

A method is described in which a digital model of a part to be formed within a build bed is received. The model is rotated within a build volume of the build bed such that the projected area of the part in a plane normal to a flow axis is reduced. The flow axis is an axis along which a flow of gas moves through the build bed during a post-print operation, or the flow axis is defined by a type of post-print operation to be performed on the build bed.

The problem of measuring the temperature of a 3D printing process is addressed by systems and methods that apply imaging spectrometry to measure blackbody radiation emitted before, during, or after a 3D printing process. The systems and methods utilize a pair of lenses, a field stop, and a wavelength separator to direct a plurality of wavelengths corresponding to the blackbody radiation to pixels of an optical detector. The plurality of wavelengths are analyzed by a controller to determine the temperature of the 3D printed component.

The problem of measuring the temperature of a 3D printing process is addressed by systems and methods that apply imaging spectrometry to measure blackbody radiation emitted before, during, or after a 3D printing process. The systems and methods utilize a pair of lenses, a field stop, and a wavelength separator to direct a plurality of wavelengths corresponding to the blackbody radiation to pixels of an optical detector. The plurality of wavelengths are analyzed by a controller to determine the temperature of the 3D printed component.

The various embodiments described herein include methods, devices, and systems for customizing dental care. In one aspect, personalized toothbrush devices are 3-D printed for a plurality of users. A 3-D dental model of a respective user's mouth is obtained, and a configuration for a mouthpiece of a respective personalized toothbrush device is determined. The respective personalized toothbrush device is 3-D printed, and includes a top cleaning tray, a bottom cleaning tray, and a set of cleaning elements, each customized based at least in part on the 3-D dental model of the respective user's mouth. Each personalized toothbrush device is 3-D printed for each respective user of the plurality of users, and is different from every other user's personalized toothbrush device.

A method for generating or enhancing a shell for a printed three-dimensional (3D) object includes converting a 3D print file representing the 3D object to at least one vector file representing the 3D object; using a vector trapping algorithm on the at least one vector file to generate or enhance the shell in the at least one vector file; processing the at least one vector file with the shell to produce at least one rasterized vector file; and printing, using the at least one rasterized vector file, the 3D object with the shell.

A method for generating or enhancing a shell for a printed three-dimensional (3D) object includes converting a 3D print file representing the 3D object to at least one vector file representing the 3D object; using a vector trapping algorithm on the at least one vector file to generate or enhance the shell in the at least one vector file; processing the at least one vector file with the shell to produce at least one rasterized vector file; and printing, using the at least one rasterized vector file, the 3D object with the shell.

A method for generating or enhancing a shell for a printed three-dimensional (3D) object includes converting a 3D print file representing the 3D object to at least one vector file representing the 3D object; using a vector trapping algorithm on the at least one vector file to generate or enhance the shell in the at least one vector file; processing the at least one vector file with the shell to produce at least one rasterized vector file; and printing, using the at least one rasterized vector file, the 3D object with the shell.

A method for producing a support structure of a 3D model for 3D printing is provided. A method for producing a support according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of: dividing a surface constituting a 3D model into multiple surface patches; classifying respective divided surface patches according to geometric characteristics; and producing supports corresponding to the classified characteristics with regard to respective surface patches. Accordingly, during metal laminate manufacturing, the output stability may be improved while reducing the support producing process time. In addition, the surfaces may be expressed by different colors according to the result of geometric characteristic classification, and the supports may also be expressed by different colors according to the type, thereby playing the role of guide lines such that the user can recognize the shape of the surfaces and the type of supports to be installed on the corresponding surfaces. Moreover, the size of a support tip is determined in view of the thickness of the area in which a support is to be produced, thereby preventing the problem of output quality degradation which would otherwise occur because the support cannot move upwards through an output part.

A method for producing a support structure of a 3D model for 3D printing is provided. A method for producing a support according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of: dividing a surface constituting a 3D model into multiple surface patches; classifying respective divided surface patches according to geometric characteristics; and producing supports corresponding to the classified characteristics with regard to respective surface patches. Accordingly, during metal laminate manufacturing, the output stability may be improved while reducing the support producing process time. In addition, the surfaces may be expressed by different colors according to the result of geometric characteristic classification, and the supports may also be expressed by different colors according to the type, thereby playing the role of guide lines such that the user can recognize the shape of the surfaces and the type of supports to be installed on the corresponding surfaces. Moreover, the size of a support tip is determined in view of the thickness of the area in which a support is to be produced, thereby preventing the problem of output quality degradation which would otherwise occur because the support cannot move upwards through an output part.