SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHIC LAYERED MANUFACTURING OF THREE DIMENSIONAL (3D) OBJECTS, PARTS AND COMPONENTS USING TRI-LEVEL ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY
First Claim
1. An object manufacturing system, comprising:
- an laminate forming device for electrostatically forming multi-component laminates, each of a plurality of the multi-component laminates constituting an individual layer among a plurality of layers for forming an in-process three-dimensional (3D) object, the laminate forming device comprising;
a photoreceptor having a photoconductive surface;
a charging device for charging the photoconductive surface of the photoreceptor to a substantially uniform charge level;
an optical imaging device for selectively discharging first portions of the photoconductive surface to a first image charge level and second portions of the photoconductive surface to a second image charge level to form a multi-component latent image on the photoconductive surface of the photoreceptor;
a first developer station positioned downstream of the optical imaging device in an image forming process direction, the first developer station being configured to deliver a metered amount of first charged toner particles to the discharged first portions of the photoconductive surface to form a first portion of the multi-component laminate; and
a second developer station positioned downstream of the first developer station in the image forming process direction, the second developer station being configured to deliver a metered amount of second charged toner particles to the discharged second portions of the photoconductive surface to form a second portion of the multi-component laminate on a same cycle of the photoreceptor; and
a 3D object build platform having a surface configured to receive each of the plurality of the multi-component laminates transferred from the photoreceptor in support of a 3D object build process constituted of the plurality of layers.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method are provided for implementing a unique electrophotographic layered manufacturing scheme for creating higher fidelity electrophotographic composite laminate layers using tri-level electrophotography or electrostatic imaging scheme as a process for rendering individual laminate layers to be built up to form and/or manufacture three-dimensional objects, parts and components as 3D objects. A multi-stage 3D object forming scheme is described involving steps of multi-component laminate forming in a particularized electrophotographic layer forming process. This process renders a part component and a support component precisely next to one another with a single exposure by an exposing device to form a latent image of variable discharge voltages. Multiple toner product sources are used to dispose part component toner and support component toner in the forming of the multi-component laminate layer.
3 Citations
23 Claims
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1. An object manufacturing system, comprising:
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an laminate forming device for electrostatically forming multi-component laminates, each of a plurality of the multi-component laminates constituting an individual layer among a plurality of layers for forming an in-process three-dimensional (3D) object, the laminate forming device comprising; a photoreceptor having a photoconductive surface; a charging device for charging the photoconductive surface of the photoreceptor to a substantially uniform charge level; an optical imaging device for selectively discharging first portions of the photoconductive surface to a first image charge level and second portions of the photoconductive surface to a second image charge level to form a multi-component latent image on the photoconductive surface of the photoreceptor; a first developer station positioned downstream of the optical imaging device in an image forming process direction, the first developer station being configured to deliver a metered amount of first charged toner particles to the discharged first portions of the photoconductive surface to form a first portion of the multi-component laminate; and a second developer station positioned downstream of the first developer station in the image forming process direction, the second developer station being configured to deliver a metered amount of second charged toner particles to the discharged second portions of the photoconductive surface to form a second portion of the multi-component laminate on a same cycle of the photoreceptor; and a 3D object build platform having a surface configured to receive each of the plurality of the multi-component laminates transferred from the photoreceptor in support of a 3D object build process constituted of the plurality of layers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for implementing object manufacturing, comprising:
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charging a photoconductive surface of a photoreceptor to a substantially uniform charge level with a charge inducing device; selectively discharging first portions of the photoconductive surface to a first image charge level and second portions of the photoconductive surface to a second image charge level with a single optical imaging component to form a multi-component latent image on the photoconductive surface; delivering a metered amount of first charged toner particles from a first developer station positioned downstream of the single optical imaging component in an image forming process direction to the discharged first portions of the photoconductive surface to form a first portion of a multi-component laminate; and delivering a metered amount of second charged toner particles from a second developer station positioned downstream of the first developer station in the image forming process direction to the discharged second portions of the photoconductive surface to form a second portion of the multi-component laminate on a same cycle of the photoreceptor; and transferring the formed multi-component laminate from the photoreceptor to a 3D object build platform having a surface that is configured to sequentially receive each multi-component laminate in support of a 3D object build process, each of a plurality of multi-component laminates constituting an individual layer among a plurality of layers for forming an in-process 3D object, and the forming of each multi-component laminate on the photoconductive surface of the photoreceptor and the transferring of each of the plurality of the formed multi-component laminates from the photoreceptor to the 3D object build platform being controlled by a processor. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute the steps of a method for forming an object, the method comprising:
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charging a photoconductive surface of a photoreceptor to a substantially uniform charge level with a charge inducing device; selectively discharging first portions of the photoconductive surface to a first image charge level and second portions of the photoconductive surface to a second image charge level with a single optical imaging component to form a multi-component latent image on the photoconductive surface; delivering a metered amount of first charged toner particles from a first developer station positioned downstream of the single optical imaging component in an image forming process direction to the discharged first portions of the photoconductive surface to form a first portion of a multi-component laminate; and delivering a metered amount of second charged toner particles from a second developer station positioned downstream of the first developer station in the image forming process direction to the discharged second portions of the photoconductive surface to form a second portion of the multi-component laminate on a same cycle of the photoreceptor; and transferring the formed multi-component laminate from the photoreceptor to a 3D object build platform having a surface that is configured to sequentially receive each multi-component laminate in support of a 3D object build process, each of a plurality of multi-component laminates constituting an individual layer among a plurality of layers for forming an in-process 3D object.
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Specification