METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING THREE-DIMENSIONAL OBJECT USING LINE WIDTH COMPENSATION WITH SMALL FEATURE RETENTION

• Main Authors: EARL JOCELYN M, MANNERS CHRIS R
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 03.10.2000
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY; ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, i.e. MANUFACTURING OFTHREE-DIMENSIONAL [3-D] OBJECTS BY ADDITIVE DEPOSITION, ADDITIVEAGGLOMERATION OR ADDITIVE LAYERING, e.g. BY 3-D PRINTING,STEREOLITHOGRAPHY OR SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING; AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING; CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL; INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASSES B29B, B29C OR B29D, RELATING TO MOULDING MATERIALS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; TRANSPORTING; WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To partly correct a curing width of a beam used for a three- dimensional object by exposing adjacent materials to a beam of a predetermined stimulation, forming a continuously thin layer of the object, and repeating operations of forming and exposing a plurality of times to form the object from the thin layers. SOLUTION: Data is manipulated to form altering object data for forming a three-dimensional object. In this forming step, data regarding one sectional boundary is shifted, and a layer of a material 5 adjacent to a layer of either finally formed material 5 is formed from the first shift value and second shift value. These materials 5 are exposed to a beam of a predetermined stimulation, and operations of forming and exposing are repeated a plurality of times until continuously thin layers 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31 and 33 of the object 15 are formed. Thus, a curing width of the beam used for the three-dimensional object can be partly corrected.