Granted Patent B2

US 12,459,200 · App. 15/977,476 · Granted Nov 4, 2025

Inventors: James A. DeMuth (Woburn, MA); Francis L. Leard (Sudbury, MA); Erik Toomre (Los Altos, CA)

Assignee: Seurat Technologies, Inc.

B29C64/282B22F10/28B22F10/36B22F10/85B22F12/44B22F12/49B29C64/153B29C64/268B22F10/30B22F10/70B22F12/41B22F12/45B33Y10/00B33Y30/00

Abstract

Claims (12)

1 . A three-dimensional printing apparatus, comprising

a processor;

a spatial angular light valve connected to the processor, the spatial angular light valve comprising multiple discrete zones acting under multiple respective voltages applied by the processor in a linear pattern, wherein each zone steers light be refraction to a different direction according to the zone's applied voltage;

a powder bed configured to receive a two-dimensional patterned light beam for fusing powder into a printed object, wherein the two-dimensional patterned light beam is patterned by a superposition of linear deflections of light beams passing through and refracted by the multiple discrete zones of the spatial angular light valve;

a rejected energy handling system configured to receive rejected energy of a negative image from the spatial angular light valve; and

wherein the processor is further configured to apply a repeating stripe pattern across the spatial angular light valve in order to cause a time-varying splay rotation causing the spatial angular light valve to act as a prism that produced time-varying change in an angle of two or more angles.

2 . The 3D printing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the spatial angular light valve comprises a photoconductor, and wherein a pattern of the two-dimensional patterned light beam imprints a voltage pattern on the photoconductor.

3 . The 3D printing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the spatial angular light valve modifieds the pattern of the two-dimensional patterned light beam by refracting of the two-dimensional patterned light beam through the two or more angles.

4 . The 3D printing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a portion of the rejected energy is modified in intensity or pattern by a switchyard of the rejected energy handling system, and wherein another portion of the rejected energy is recycled and provided to the spatial angular light valve through a beam recycling injection port of the rejected energy handling system.

5 . The 3D printing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the spatial angular light valve refracts the two-dimensional patterned light beam into a reformatted pattern that is one of a superposition of linear deflections.

6 . The 3D printing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising Fourier optics, wherein the spatial angular light valve is positioned between the Fourier optics to form an arbitrary pattern.

7 . The 3D printing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the bed further comprises multiple powder bed chambers.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (247)