Method of printing grayscale and full-color 3D articles

• US 9,827,712 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2015
• Issued: 11/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 3D Systems, Inc. (3D Systems Corporation)
• Original Assignee: 3D Systems, Inc. (3D Systems Corporation)
• Inventors: Snyder, Trevor, Titterington, Don, Chan, Chengsung
• Primary Examiner(s): Tentoni, Leo B
• Application Number:
  US14/734,401
• Publication Number:
  US 20150352783A1
• Time in Patent Office: 903 Days
• Field of Search: 264308
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/106 using only liquids or viscous materials, e.g. depositing a continuous bead of viscous material
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/112 using individual droplets, e.g. from jetting heads
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 67/0007 Manufacturing coloured articles not otherwise provided for, e.g. by colour change
• CPC Class Codes: B29K 2995/002 Coloured
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 10/00 Processes of additive manufacturing

Abstract

In one aspect, methods of printing a 3D article are described herein. In some embodiments, a method of printing a 3D article comprises selectively depositing a first portion of build material in a fluid state onto a substrate to form a first region of build material; selectively depositing a first portion of support material in a fluid state to form a first region of support material; and selectively depositing a second portion of build material in a fluid state to form a second region of build material, wherein the first region of support material is disposed between the first region of build material and the second region of build material in a z-direction of the article. In some cases, the first region of support material forms a grayscale pattern and/or a CMY color pattern in combination with the first region of build material and/or the second region of build material.

Claims

1. A method of printing a three-dimensional article comprising:

selectively depositing a first portion of build material in a fluid state onto a substrate to form a first region of build material;

selectively depositing a first portion of support material in a fluid state to form a first region of support material; and

selectively depositing a second portion of build material in a fluid state to form a second region of build material,

wherein the first region of support material is disposed between the first region of build material and the second region of build material in a z-direction of the article, and

wherein the first region of support material forms a grayscale pattern in combination with the first region of build material and/or the second region of build material.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second portions of the build material are deposited from a first channel of a print head of a three-dimensional printing system, and the support material is deposited from a second channel of the print head.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first region of support material is completely or substantially completely covered by the second region of build material in a z-direction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and/or second portion of build material comprises a colorant.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first portion of build material comprises one or more first colorants and the second portion of build material comprises one or more second colorants.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second regions of build material are formed from the same build material or combination of build materials.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second portion of build material is optically transparent or substantially optically transparent.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the support material is white.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the grayscale pattern is formed by varying the thickness of the first region of support material and/or the thickness of the second region of build material in one or more lateral directions.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the grayscale pattern comprises a stochastic distribution of spatially discrete sub-regions of support material.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the grayscale pattern comprises an ordered array of spatially-discrete sub-regions of support material.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the grayscale pattern comprises a halftone pattern formed from a plurality of selectively deposited dots of the support material.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the grayscale pattern is formed by varying the spatial density and/or weight percent of the first region of support material relative to the surrounding first and second regions of build material in one or more lateral directions.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the first and second regions of build material and the first region of support material is deposited according to an image of the three-dimensional article in a computer readable format.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising curing the first and/or second region of build material.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising cooling the three-dimensional article to solidify the first region of support material.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising supporting at least a portion of at least one of the first and second regions of build material with one or more second regions of support material.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first and second regions of support material are formed from the same support material.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the method is carried out by a three-dimensional printer having a two-channel print head.

20. The method of claim 9, wherein the grayscale pattern is formed by continuously varying the thickness of the first region of support material and/or the thickness of the second region of build material in one or more lateral directions.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first and/or second portion of build material is formed from a mixture or combination of one or more of a first build material having a cyan color, a second build material having a magenta color, and a third build material having a yellow color, and

the first portion of support material is formed from a support material having a white color.