In an example, a method includes measuring a temperature of a plurality of regions of a layer of build material in an additive manufacturing apparatus to provide initial temperature values. For each of a plurality of regions which comprise build material which is intended to fuse, an average temperature value of a plurality of neighbouring regions may be determined and the initial temperature values may be replaced with the average temperature value. Based on the replacement temperature values, a representative temperature of an area of the layer of build material may be determined and a heat source may be controlled based on the representative temperature.

The present relates to an apparatus for manufacturing 3-dimensional concrete structures comprising a projection head (1) for spraying concrete material, wherein the projection head (1) comprises a projection nozzle (11) for spraying the concrete material and at least two guiding surfaces (12) provided on both sides of the projection nozzle (11) and defining a volume in between, such that the projection nozzle (11) is adapted to spray the concrete material into said volume, and wherein the projection head (1) is repeatedly moved along a predefined path by a control means and is configured to adjust the position of the two guiding surfaces (12) during the movement of the projection nozzle (11) so as to create a 3-dimensional concrete structure made of a plurality of projected concrete layers.

The present disclosure provides three-dimensional (3D) printing methods, apparatuses, systems and software that effectuate formation of a robust 3D object comprising at least one metal alloy. The 3D object may be formed by 3D printing. The 3D object may comprise diminished defects (e.g., heat cracks). The alloy may be formed by diffusion. The diffusion may be a controlled diffusion. The control may comprise (e.g., real time) temperature control during the formation of the 3D object. The 3D object may comprise controlled crystal structure and/or metallurgical phases.

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.

The present invention is directed generally at three-dimensional printing and more particularly to using three-dimensional (3D) printing to produce concrete and concrete-like (i.e. hempcrete) structures. Recently, 3D printing has advanced to the point where it is now possible to 3D print more complex concrete structures, such as homes. Unfortunately, prior art methods of 3D printing concrete structures have numerous drawbacks. For example, many existing systems suffer from excessive mechanical complexity and/or are susceptible to jamming (e.g. caused by dirt getting into delicate mechanisms). Other problems include difficulty with field maintainability, a lack of horizontal and vertical construction scalability, excessive weight and/or difficulty in printing structures on uneven or difficult ground. Also, existing devices are difficult and time consuming to assemble and disassemble in the field, thereby increasing project costs. The present innovation successfully addresses all of these limitations.

A device for measuring the depth of a weld seam in real time during the welding or joining of a workpiece by means of radiation, including: its measuring light source, the light of which is coupled by a beam splitter into a reference arm and a measuring arm; a collimator module having at least one collimation lens for collimating a measuring light beam, which is fed to the collimator module via an optical waveguide in the measuring arm, and for imaging the measuring light beam, which is reflected from a workpiece to be processed, on an exit/entry surface of the optical waveguide; a coupling element for coupling the measuring light beam into the beam path of a processing beam; a focusing lens for the joint focusing of the measuring light beam and the processing beam on the workpiece and for the collimating of the reflected measuring light beam; and an analysis unit for determining the depth of a weld seam, into which the measuring light reflected from the workpiece is guided with the superimposed, reflected light from the reference arm. The collimator module includes a device for setting the axial focal position of the measuring light beam, and for setting the lateral focal position of the measuring light beam, and a field lens, which is arranged between the exit/entry surface of the optical waveguide and the collimation lens and defines the beam widening of the measuring light beam and therefore the focus diameter of the measuring light beam.

Machine and method for compacting a powder material; the machine comprises a compacting device, which is designed to compact the powder material; a conveyor assembly to transport the powder material along a first portion of a given path to the compacting device; and a feeding assembly, which is designed to feed the powder material to the conveyor assembly and comprises a transfer chamber designed to hold and transfer the powder material; movable elements are present at a wall of the transfer chamber.

A three-dimensional manufacturing apparatus and a three-dimensional manufacturing method easily adjust a heating quantity per unit area individually for a solidified region and a non-solidified region of a powder material. A layer formation unit forms a layer of a powder material. Light sources and heat scanning units heat the layer by laser beams. The laser beam heats a solidified region in which the powder material has been fused and solidified. The laser beam heats the non-solidified region of the powder material, which is adjacent to the solidified region. The controlling section controls the light sources and the heat scanning units so as to move the laser beams along a boundary between the solidified region and the non-solidified region, and to fuse and solidify a manufacturing region of the layer.

A manufacturing method includes a mixing step, a kneading step of kneading a wet mixture, a liquid adding step of further adding a liquid to a kneaded material, a forming step of extruding a forming material of which viscosity is adjusted into a honeycomb formed body, a drying step of drying the honeycomb formed body, and a dimension measuring step of measuring a dry dimension of a honeycomb dried body that has been dried, where in the liquid adding step, the amount of the liquid to be added is adjusted based on the result of measuring the dry dimension of the honeycomb dried body.

In one example, a method of fabricating a three-dimensional object includes depositing a layer of build material, depositing a coalescing agent onto the layer of build material according to a slice of three-dimensional model data, irradiating the coalescing agent with microwave radiation such that the coalescing agent converts the microwave radiation into heat to coalesce the build material in which the coalescing agent was deposited.