Contour Smoothing for Material Extrusion Three-Dimensionally Printed Parts

1 . A system for contouring a three-dimensional printed part, comprising:

a three-dimensional printer including a three-dimensional print head carried by an x,y gantry in the three-dimensional printer, the three-dimensional print head including a heated extrusion nozzle; and

a processor control system, wherein the processor control system includes executable code to:

print a three-dimensionally printed part by depositing a filament trace in a printing path with the three-dimensional print head, wherein the three-dimensionally printed part includes a surface oriented in a build direction; and

smooth the surface oriented in the build direction by moving a reflow tool along a smoothing path while printing the three-dimensionally printed part.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the process control system includes executable code to:

generate the primary print path from a representation of the three-dimensionally printed part, wherein the primary print path includes a plurality of primary print layers; and

generate a smoothing path, wherein the smoothing path includes a plurality of smoothing layers.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the representation of the three-dimensionally printed part is scaled to create the smoothing path.

4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the processor control system includes executable code to interweave the plurality of primary print layers and the plurality of smoothing layers.

5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the processor control system includes executable code to begin the smoothing path after at least two of the plurality of primary print layers have been printed.

6 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the processor control system includes executable code to:

generate the primary printing path by creating commands for use by the three-dimensional printer through dividing the representation of the three-dimensionally printed part into the plurality of primary print layers and creating a plurality of instructions for depositing an extruded filament in each layer of the plurality of primary print layers.

7 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the processor control system includes executable code to:

generate the smoothing path by dividing the representation of the three-dimensionally printed part into the plurality of smoothing layers and creating the smoothing path at an offset from the printing path and creating a plurality of instructions for moving a reflow tool through the plurality of smoothing layers.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the heated extrusion nozzle includes a heated extrusion nozzle tip and the reflow tool is the heated extrusion nozzle tip.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein instructions to smooth the surface include creating a texture or design in the surface.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the reflow tool includes a contacting surface geometry and the reflow tool imparts a smoothing profile on the three-dimensionally printed part in a range of 0 to plus or minus 10 degrees inverse of the reflow tool contacting surface geometry.

11 . A method for contouring a three-dimensional printed part, comprising:

printing a three-dimensionally printed part by depositing a filament in a primary print path with a three-dimensional print head, wherein the three-dimensionally printed part includes a surface oriented in a build direction; and

smoothing the surface oriented in the build direction by moving a reflow tool along a smoothing path while printing the three-dimensionally printed part.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

generating the primary print path from a representation of a three-dimensionally printed part, wherein the primary print path includes a plurality of primary print layers;

generating a smoothing path, wherein the smoothing path includes a plurality of smoothing layers.

13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising interweaving the plurality of primary print layers with the plurality of smoothing layers.

14 . The method of claim 13 , beginning the smoothing path after at least two of the plurality of primary print layers.

15 . The method of claim 12 , generating the primary print path by dividing the representation of the three-dimensionally printed part into the plurality of primary print layers and creating a plurality of instructions for depositing filament in each of the plurality of primary print layers.

16 . The method of claim 12 , generating the smoothing path by dividing the representation of the three-dimensionally printed part into the plurality of smoothing layers and creating the smoothing path at an offset from the printing path and creating a plurality of instructions for moving a reflow tool through the plurality of smoothing layers.

17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising setting an extrusion multiplier to zero in the smoothing path when a headed nozzle tip is used as the reflow tool.

18 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the smoothing path creates interference between the reflow tool and the three-dimensionally printed part.

19 . The method of claim 11 , wherein smoothing includes imparting a texture or design in the surface.

20 . A three-dimensional printer, comprising:

a processor control system, wherein the processor control system includes executable code to:

print a three-dimensionally printed part by depositing a filament trace in a printing path with the three-dimensional print head, wherein the three-dimensionally printed part includes a surface oriented in a build direction; and

smooth the surface oriented in the build direction by moving a reflow tool along a smoothing path while printing the three-dimensionally printed part.