Layered manufactured articles having small-width fluid conduction vents and methods of making same

1 - 12 . (canceled)

13 . A method comprising using a layered manufacturing process to produce an article having a plurality of small-width fluid conduction vents, wherein at least one of said small-width fluid conduction vents has a polygonal cross-sectional shape and is produced in said article by said layered manufacturing process, said article is a component of an EPS bead mold, and said plurality comprises a sufficiently large number of small-width fluid conduction vents so that the time for processing the electronic files containing representations of the small-width fluid conduction vents is substantially less than it would have been had the cross-sectional shape of the small-width fluid conduction vents been circular.

14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising the steps of:

a) using said article to make a pattern; and

b) using said pattern in a lost-foam molding process.

15 - 42 . (canceled)

43 . An article produced by the method described in claim 13 .

44 - 86 . (canceled)

87 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the layered manufactured process is selected from the group consisting of three dimensional printing and selective laser sintering.

88 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising the step of infiltrating the article after it has been produced by said layered manufacturing process.

89 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising the steps of:

a) creating a first electronic file containing a representation of said article, wherein at least one of said fluid conduction vents is absent from the representation of said article;

b) creating a second electronic file containing a representation of at least one of said absent small-width fluid conduction vent or vents;

c) combining said first electronic file with said second electronic file to create a third electronic file containing a representation of said article with at least one of said absent small-width fluid conduction vent or vents positioned within said article; and

d) using said third file with said layered manufacturing process to produce said article.

90 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising the step of designing at least one of said small-width fluid conduction vents to have a cross-sectional shape that is selected from the group of consisting of square and hexagon.

91 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the mold has a direction of opening during use and the method further comprises the step of orienting at least one of said small-width conduction vents to have a centerline oriented parallel to said direction of opening.

92 . A method comprising the steps of:

a) modeling an article having a plurality of small-width fluid conduction vents to create an electronic file, wherein each of the small-width fluid conduction vents has a polygonal cross-sectional shape; and

b) using the electronic file with a layered manufacturing process to produce said article;

wherein said plurality comprises a sufficiently large number of small-width fluid conduction vents so that the time for processing the electronic file is substantially less than it would have been had the cross-sectional shape of the small-width fluid conduction vents been circular.

93 . The method of claim 92 , further comprising the step of selecting the article to be a fluid regulation component of a shock absorber.

94 . The method of claim 92 , further comprising the step of selecting the article to be a mold.

95 . The method of claim 94 , wherein the mold has a direction of opening and the method further comprises the step of orienting at least one of said small-width conduction vents to have a centerline oriented parallel to said direction of opening.

96 . The method of claim 94 , wherein the article is selected to be an EPS bead mold.

97 . The method of claim 96 , further comprising the step of using the EPS bead mold to produce a pattern for a lost-foam molding process.

98 . The method of claim 92 , further comprising the step of selecting the article to be a heat transfer device.

99 . The method of claim 92 , wherein the step of modeling includes:

i) modeling the article to create a first electronic file;

ii) modeling the plurality of small-width fluid conduction vents to create a second electronic file, wherein at least one of said fluid conduction vents has a polygonal cross-section; and

iii) combining said first and second electronic files to create the electronic file to be used in step b).

100 . The method of claim 92 , further comprising the step of selecting the polygonal cross-sectional shape from the group consisting of a square and a hexagon.

101 . The method of claim 92 , further comprising the step of selecting the layered manufacturing process from the group consisting of three dimensional printing and selective laser sintering.

102 . The method of claim 92 , further comprising the step of infiltrating the article after it has been produced by said layered manufacturing process.

103 . The method of claim 92 , further comprising the step of designing at least one of the small-width fluid conduction vents to have a cross-section that varies in width along its centerline.

104 . The method of claim 92 , further comprising the step of designing at least one of the small-width fluid conduction vents to vary in cross-sectional shape along its length.

105 . (canceled)

106 . An article produced by the method of claim 92.