An additive manufacturing system for additive manufacturing material with long fibers includes an extruder comprising a nozzle that includes a static-mixing portion, a compression portion, and a long fiber alignment portion. The static-mixing portion includes a static-mixing channel with static-mixing rods distributed inside and extending radially inward from a channel wall. The long fiber alignment portion has an alignment channel with a diameter D.sub.AC that is less than a diameter D.sub.SMC of the static-mixing channel. The compression portion includes with a reducing diameter from an input end to an output end of the compression channel. A nozzle and method for additive manufacturing are also disclosed.

An additive manufacturing system for an additive manufacturing material and embedded short-chopped fibers includes an extruder comprising a nozzle having a nozzle flow channel. The nozzle includes a plurality of spaced apart elongated aligning structures distributed inside the nozzle flow channel and parallel to the longitudinal center axis defining alignment flow channels within the nozzle flow channel. A nozzle for additive manufacturing, a method of additive manufacturing, and a method of making a nozzle for an additive manufacturing system for and additive manufacturing material and embedded short-chopped fibers are also disclosed.

An additive manufacturing system for additive manufacturing with an additive manufacturing material and fibers includes an extruder comprising a static-mixing nozzle having a static-mixing channel and static-mixing structures distributed inside the static-mixing channel and extending radially inward from the channel wall, and being longitudinally distributed and radially staggered over a portion of the length of the static-mixing channel. A static-mixing nozzle, a method of additive manufacturing, and a method of making a static mixing nozzle for additive manufacturing are also disclosed.

A static mixer is provided. The static mixer includes a plurality of static mixer elements. Each static mixer element includes a core extending axially along a longitudinal axis between a first end and a second end. Each static mixer element includes at least one blade around an outside of the core. At least a first one of the plurality of static mixer elements includes a first keying feature. At least a second one of the plurality of static mixer elements including a second keying feature configured to engage the first keying feature to prevent relative rotation between the first one of the plurality of static mixer elements and the second one of the plurality of static mixer elements about the longitudinal axes of the first one and the second one of the plurality of static mixer elements. Methods of forming the static mixer are also provided.

A process and associated system for creating color effects in extrudable material, such as plastic and metal for example, are presented. Flows of first and second viscous materials of respective colors are provided and then combined in a predetermined pattern to form a stream of combined viscous material. In a first aspect, the flow rate of the first viscous material is caused to vary over time in order to vary an amount of the first viscous material in the stream. In a second aspect, which may be used alone or in combination with the first aspect, the first and second viscous materials have distinct viscosities to reduce an amount of color blending between the first color and the second color in the stream of combined viscous material. A static mixer may then be used to apply a predetermined dividing, overturning and combining motion to the stream of combined viscous material to partially mix the first viscous material and the second viscous material, such that upon exiting the static mixer, the first material of the first color and the second material of the second color form a color pattern in the stream of combined viscous material. Sheets of extrudable material may be created using such process and used in the manufacturing of many different products including for example kayaks and stand-up paddle boards.

The present invention provides an apparatus for preparing a composite, the apparatus comprising: a first container containing a resin; a second container containing a hardener, wherein at least one of the first or second container contains nanoparticles; a metering unit arranged to receive the resin from the first container and the hardener from the second container and configured to output a treating mixture, wherein the metering unit controls a ratio of the resin and the hardener in the treating mixture; and a treatment device arranged to receive a filament and the treating mixture, and treat the filament with the treating mixture to produce the composite.

An alginate-polyacrylamide IPN hydrogel formulation for 3D printing using a dual syringe system where the components that initiate polymerization of each network remain separated until printing. The dual syringe system may use a single motor and mixing head to combine both parts of the hydrogel formulation for controlled polymerization of the material. The elastic and time-dependent viscoelastic properties (stress relaxation) are tuned to match mammalian tissues by changing the crosslink density and monomer concentration. The fracture energy of the material may be increased by soaking in a calcium chloride solution. The resulting IPN polymer material may find application in soft tissue medical simulation devices, particularly because the mechanical properties may be tuned to mimic the elastic and viscoelastic properties of muscle tissue and may be 3D printed in the shape of anatomical parts.

The invention relates to a device for preparing and applying adhesive, comprising a feed unit, a preparing unit, and an application unit, wherein the feed unit is used to feed a basic component of the adhesive and/or of at least one additive, wherein the preparing unit effects continuous mixing of the basic component of the adhesive with the one or more fed additives to form the prepared adhesive and continuous conveying of the prepared adhesive, wherein the adhesive prepared in such a way is conveyed from the preparing unit into the application unit and can be applied to a workpiece by the application unit.

A layer multiplier (100) is disclosed. It comprises an inlet (102) for a flow of multilayered flowable material, a distribution manifold (104) into which the inlet debouches, a number >2 of separate splitting channels (106) extending from the distribution manifold, a recombination manifold (108) into which the splitting channels debouch, an outlet in one end of the recombination manifold, and the distribution manifold is arranged in an opposing relationship with the recombination manifold.

A method minimizes emissions while spraying a mixture of a resin composition and a polyisocyanate onto a surface. The resin composition has a hydroxyl content of at least 400 mg KOH/g and includes a blowing agent that is a liquid under pressure, a first polyol, at least one additional polyol other than the first polyol, and optionally a catalyst, surfactant, and water. The mixture is sprayed onto the surface to form a polyurethane foam having a closed cell content of at least 90 percent. The mixture is also sprayed through a spray nozzle at a spray angle corresponding to a control spray angle of from 15 to 125 degrees measured at a pressure of from 10 to 40 psi using water as a standard. The step of spraying produces less than 50 parts of the polyisocyanate per one billion parts of air according to OSHA Method 47.