In an aspect, an extrusion printer is provided comprising a print head comprising one or more nozzles suited for 3D printing of a pharmaceutical product. A metering pump is coupled to the print head and is arranged to control a flow to said print head and an extruder device comprises an input arranged to receive a powder or pellet material. A three-way pressure valve is fitted between the metering pump and the extruder device to automatically distribute a constant output flow from the extruder to an input flow directed towards the metering pump and a remainder flow directed towards the overflow outlet.

The invention provides a solid-dosage-form printing apparatus comprising: i) a 3D printer suitable for printing solid-dosage-forms, said 3D printer comprising an interchangeable print head selected from the group consisting of: a fused deposition modelling print head, a semi-solid extrusion print head and a direct powder extrusion print head; ii) a build platform; iii) a balance for measuring the mass of the printed solid-dosage-forms, said balance being integrated into said build platform; and optionally iv) means for performing in-line near-infra-red and/or raman spectroscopy on the solid-dosage-form product; wherein said solid-dosage-form comprises at least one active-ingredient and at least one excipient. Further provided are methods of producing solid-dosage-forms using the apparatus, including computer-implemented methods.

A system for performing quality analysis for multidimensional printing. The system includes a multidimensional printer, wherein the multidimensional printer comprises a printing head, a printing surface, an axis system and a scale, wherein the scale is arranged to measure weight applied on the printing surface; and a control unit operatively coupled to the multidimensional printer. The control unit is configured to control the printing head to extrude a printing material, to produce a printed object on the printing surface, obtain, from the scale, a weight of the printed object, and store the weight of the printed object in a memory associated with the control unit, compare the weight with a reference weight of the printed object, and control the printing head to stop extrusion of the printing material when the weight is equal to or exceeds the reference weight.

A method of additive manufacturing including generating a stress model driven slice file for a structure and additively manufacturing a variable density foam core with respect to the stress model driven slice file such that a density of the variable density foam core is varied relative to a modeled stress in the structure manufactured with the variable density foam core. An additively manufactured structure includes a composite skin bonded to the variable density foam core.

A plasticizing device includes a material reservoir which has an input port and is configured to retain a material, a plasticizer which has a screw and a case housing the screw and provided with a feed port communicated with the input port, and which is configured to plasticize the material to generate a plasticized material, a coupling pipe having a coupling path configured to connect the input port and the feed port to each other, a material sensor which has a light emitter configured to emit light toward the screw via the feed port, and a light receiver configured to receive reflected light of the light, and which is configured to detect a remaining amount of the material, and a controller configured to control the material reservoir, wherein the material reservoir has a material feed mechanism configured to feed the material to the coupling path, and the controller controls the material feed mechanism to feed the material to the coupling path when the remaining amount of the material detected by the material sensor is smaller than a reference value.

A material cartridge includes a fresh label indicating material of the material cartridge includes previously unused material for fabrication of a three-dimensional (3D) object and a reclaimed indicator of the material cartridge, the reclaimed indicator indicating material subsequently contained within the material cartridge is reclaimed material from fabrication of a previous 3D object, wherein the reclaimed indicator is located underneath the fresh label such that when the material of the material cartridge is depleted, the fresh label is removable to expose the reclaimed indicator.

A material cartridge includes a fresh label indicating material of the material cartridge includes previously unused material for fabrication of a three-dimensional (3D) object and a reclaimed indicator of the material cartridge, the reclaimed indicator indicating material subsequently contained within the material cartridge is reclaimed material from fabrication of a previous 3D object, wherein the reclaimed indicator is located underneath the fresh label such that when the material of the material cartridge is depleted, the fresh label is removable to expose the reclaimed indicator.

An additive manufacturing apparatus includes: first and second spaced apart side walls extending along a pre-defined path and defining a build chamber therebetween; one or more build units mounted for movement along the pre-defined path, the one or more build units including at least one of: a powder dispenser positioned above the build chamber; an applicator configured to scrape powder dispensed into the build chamber; and a directed energy source configured to fuse the scraped powder.

An additive manufacturing apparatus includes: first and second spaced apart side walls extending along a pre-defined path and defining a build chamber therebetween; one or more build units mounted for movement along the pre-defined path, the one or more build units including at least one of: a powder dispenser positioned above the build chamber; an applicator configured to scrape powder dispensed into the build chamber; and a directed energy source configured to fuse the scraped powder.

A method of controlling drop mass in a liquid ejector is disclosed which includes advancing a printing material feed source to introduce a quantity of a printing material into a liquid ejector, counting a quantity of ticks produced by an encoder coupled to the printing material source during a time period to calculate a mass of the printing material, counting a quantity of pulses produced by the liquid ejector during the time period, and entering into a control system the quantity of ticks produced by the encoder and the quantity of pulses produced by the liquid ejector. The method may include comparing the quantity of printing material calculated by using the quantity of ticks produced by the encoder to the quantity of printing material measured by using a level sensing system. The method of controlling drop mass in a liquid ejector may include steps performed by a microprocessor.