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Selective control of mechanical properties in stereolithographic build style configuration

  • US 6,574,523 B1
  • Filed: 05/05/2000
  • Issued: 06/03/2003
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2000
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method of forming a three-dimensional object using a photocuring process to stimulate a liquid photocurable medium to selectively change to a cured solid to form the three-dimensional object comprising:

  • (a) retaining in a container a liquid photocurable medium capable of transformation to a cured solid state upon the selective application of energy to stimulate a change of state;

    (b) receiving a data description of an object to be formed;

    (c) manipulating the received data to optimize the data for use in selectively applying energy to stimulate the change of state of the liquid photocurable medium to form an object; and

    (d) selectively applying the energy to the liquid photocurable medium in the container to form the three-dimensional object layer by layer, a formed layer of the object being recoated with the liquid photocurable medium prior to the selective application of energy to transform the layer to the cured solid state, the object selectively having different energy application methods applied to it in different regions to thereby create at least one selected region with different solidification in the transformed pilotocurable medium than an adjacent region to create different mechanical properties in discrete regions of the object, the mechanical properties being selected from the group consisting of heat deflection temperature under load, impact strength, and tensile elongation.

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