Method for dispensing of powders
First Claim
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1. A method for dispensing and distributing a powder, comprising the steps of:
- (1) dispensing a powder by gravity feed from a hopper onto a platen, said platen being in a first platen position, where the first platen position is below said hopper;
(2) conveying said platen horizontally from the first platen position to a second platen position, where the second platen position is adjacent to a build bed;
(3) distributing said powder from said platen in the second platen position over said build bed with a spreader, said spreader moving horizontally from a first spreader position to a second spreader position to distribute said powder across said build bed;
(4) returning said spreader from the second spreader position to the first spreader position; and
(5) returning said platen to the first platen position.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for dispensing and distributing a powder is disclosed which uses a rotary dispenser to dispense the powder by gravity onto a movable platen, the platen being movable to a position adjacent to a build bed, where the powder can be distributed across the build bed using a spreader. The method and apparatus are also suited to dispensing of a plurality of powders used in build beds for solid free-form fabrication and three dimensional printing.
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Citations
39 Claims
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1. A method for dispensing and distributing a powder, comprising the steps of:
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(1) dispensing a powder by gravity feed from a hopper onto a platen, said platen being in a first platen position, where the first platen position is below said hopper; (2) conveying said platen horizontally from the first platen position to a second platen position, where the second platen position is adjacent to a build bed; (3) distributing said powder from said platen in the second platen position over said build bed with a spreader, said spreader moving horizontally from a first spreader position to a second spreader position to distribute said powder across said build bed; (4) returning said spreader from the second spreader position to the first spreader position; and (5) returning said platen to the first platen position. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for dispensing and distributing a plurality of powders, comprising the steps of:
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(1) dispensing a selected powder by gravity feed from a selected powder containing hopper onto a platen, said platen being in a first platen position below said hopper, where said hopper is selected from a plurality of powder containing hoppers; (2) conveying said platen horizontally along a conveying means from the first platen position to a second platen position, said second platen position selected along said conveying means such that the selected powder on said platen is adjacent to said build bed; (3) distributing said powder from said platen in the second platen position to said build bed with a spreader, said spreader moving horizontally from a first spreader position to a second spreader position to distribute said powder across said build bed; (4) returning said spreader from the second spreader position to the first spreader position; (5) returning said platen from the second platen position to the first platen position; and (6) repeating steps (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5) a selected number of times wherein the powder and the hopper used in each repetition is independently selected. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. An apparatus for dispensing and distributing powder, comprising:
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a) a hopper for containing a powder to be dispensed; b) a rotary dispenser for measuring and dispensing a volume of the powder, said rotary dispenser being mounted horizontally at the bottom of said hopper, and comprising a cylindrical sleeve having a long axis and two opposed side openings parallel to the long axis, having a first opposed side open to an interior of said hopper and having a second opposed side open to an exterior of said hopper, said rotary dispenser further comprising a cylinder sized and shaped to be closely received within said cylindrical sleeve and rotatably mounted within said cylindrical sleeve, said cylinder further having an elongate recess disposed along a surface of said cylinder. c) means for rotating said cylinder from a first cylinder position, having the recess open to the interior of said hopper, to a second cylinder position, having the recess open to the exterior of said hopper; d) a platen for carrying the powder, said platen disposed horizontally below said hopper and mounted for linear motion along a first axis from a first platen position below and adjacent to said hopper, to a second platen position adjacent to a build bed; e) means for distributing the powder from said platen in the second platen position, over said build bed, said distribution means mounted for linear motion along a second axis generally orthogonal to the first axis. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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Specification