Building a complete ship hull, including many internals (bulkhead, holds), as a single, 3D printed device. A Stewart crane is used for gross positioning, while a multitude of beam deposition arms can be used for finer positioning. In a shipbuilding method, this means that the hull, floors, main piping, tanks, quarters, stairs, doorways, etc. can all be printed, in place, as part of a multi-step process.

Aspects of the disclosed technology include an additive manufacturing method including: applying a mixture of metal powder and a carrier agent to a substrate; removing a portion of the carrier agent from the applied mixture; and fusing the metal powder remaining in the applied mixture to the substrate.

Aspects of the disclosed technology include an additive manufacturing method including: applying a mixture of metal powder and a carrier agent to a substrate; removing a portion of the carrier agent from the applied mixture; and fusing the metal powder remaining in the applied mixture to the substrate.

A metal shaped article production method includes a shaping data input step, a step of forming a constituent material layer using a constituent material, a step of forming a support material layer using a support material, a step of cutting a cut face in the constituent material layer of a stacked body formed by performing the constituent material layer forming step and the support material layer forming step, a step of degreasing a thermoplastic resin contained in the stacked body for which the cut face cutting step was performed, and a step of sintering metal particles by heating the stacked body, wherein in the support material layer forming step, the support material layer is formed so that a support face comes into contact with a face to be supported at an opposite side to the cut face at a position of the constituent material layer based on the shaping data.

Building is performed with a relatively small amount of material. Provided is a method for manufacturing a three-dimensional object. This method includes the steps of stacking a plurality of layers for forming an object; building a wall surrounding the object being formed; and supplying a material between the wall and the object being formed as a support material for supporting the object being formed.

A three-dimensional shaped article production method for producing a three-dimensional shaped article by stacking layers to form a stacked body includes a constituent layer formation step of forming a constituent layer which corresponds to a constituent region of the three-dimensional shaped article, a support layer formation step of forming a support layer which is in contact with the constituent layer and supports the constituent layer, and a sintering step of sintering the constituent layer, wherein the support layer is configured such that as compared with the volume decrement accompanying the sintering step of a space surrounded by the constituent layer from at least two directions, the volume decrement accompanying the sintering step of the support layer which supports the constituent layer in the space is larger.

A fabrication device includes a platform to receive layers of build material for production of a 3-dimensional solid representation of a digital model, a component to deposit layers of build material, and an imaging component to bind respective portions of the build material into cross sections representative of portions of data contained in the digital model. The first imaging component may be a programmable planar light source or a specialized refractive rastering mechanism, or other imaging system. The platform includes an infusion system for providing photocurable resin to the component being built. The object may be a powder composite component using any of a variety of powder materials or a plastic component.

A debinder provides for debinding printed green parts in an additive manufacturing system. The debinder can include a storage chamber, a process chamber, a distill chamber, a waste chamber, and a condenser. The storage chamber stores a liquid solvent for debinding the green part. The process chamber debinds the green part using a volume of the liquid solvent transferred from the storage chamber. The distill chamber collects a solution drained from the process chamber and produces a solvent vapor from the solution. The condenser condenses the solvent vapor to the liquid solvent and transfer the liquid solvent to the storage chamber. The waste chamber collects a waste component of the solution.

Additive fabrication methods for 3D composite objects having preform fiber reinforcements embedded in a matrix material include providing local heat and mechanical energy to at least partially melt, impregnate and solidify the matrix material forming at least one reinforced composite layer of the object. Successive layers are added in accordance to a computer generated tool path to form a three dimensional object with useful features.

A method for forming a metallization structure is provided, including forming a metallic powder layer on a substrate; performing a first laser sintering on a first portion of the metallic powder layer to form a metal layer; and in the presence of oxygen, performing a second laser sintering on a second portion of the metallic powder layer to form a metal oxide layer to serve as a first dielectric layer.