CLEANING OF ADDITIVELY MANUFACTURED OBJECTS BY VACUUM CYCLING NUCLEATION

• Main Authors: Murillo, Michael, Feller, Bob E, Peter, Stephen J, Einthoven, Kristen
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 25.08.2022
• 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; CLEANING; CLEANING IN GENERAL; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PREVENTION OF FOULING IN GENERAL; 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

A method of making an object from a data file and a light polymerizable resin by additive manufacturing includes the steps of: (a) optionally modifying the data file to add additional vacuum cycling nucleation (VCN) nucleation sites to surfaces of the object (2A); (b) producing the object from the data file and the resin by light polymerization in an additive manufacturing process (3), optionally under conditions in which additional VCN nucleation sites are added to surfaces of the object, the object having residual resin adhered to the surface thereof; and then (c) cleaning the residual resin from the object with a wash liquid by vacuum cycling nucleation (4).