Granted Patent B2

US 12,686,175 · App. 18/462,783 · Granted Jul 21, 2026

Inventors: Aaron Daniel Gregg (Bloomington, MN); Keith Wade Kooiman (Chaska, MN); Karl Anthony Nelson (Minneapolis, MN); Paul Joseph Leavitt (Minneapolis, MN); Thomas James Studanski (Plymouth, MN); Subramaniam Jayanti (Eden Prairie, MN)

Assignee: STRATASYS, INC.

B29C64/386B29C64/118B29C64/336B29C64/35B33Y10/00B33Y40/00B33Y50/00

Abstract

Claims (40)

1 . A method of printing a multi-material part in a layer-wise manner with an extrusion-based 3D printer, the method comprising:

providing a sliced digital model of a multi-material part;

determining a number of materials in each of the slices of the digital model;

utilizing a digital model of a purge tower having a multi-node configuration comprising N subdivisions each having a closed geometry, wherein N is the number of print heads needed to print the part and is a number greater than or equal to three, each subdivision being adjacent to at least two other subdivisions;

assigning each print head to one subdivision and to one or more toolpaths forming the one subdivision in each layer, wherein portions of the toolpaths of adjacent subdivisions of the purge tower contact one another along an interface;

for each layer of the multi-material 3D part that utilizes less the N print heads, reassigning the assigned subdivision within the purge tower of an inactive print head in a layer to a print head that is active in the layer of the multi-material 3D part;

printing the subdivisions of each layer of the purge tower with the assigned or reassigned print heats to bring each print head utilized to print a portion of a layer or a layer of the multi-material part from a standby condition to a printing condition;

printing portions of the layer or the layer of the multi-material 3D part with the print head in the printing condition; and

repeating the printing of each layer of the purge tower with the assigned and reassigned print heads for each subdivision of the purge tower and the layer of the multi-material part until the multi material part is printed.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more toolpaths do not intersect or overlap any other toolpath and do not intersect or overlap themselves.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the subdivisions form vertical walls of the multi-node purge tower.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the purge tower has a decreasing cross-section.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi-node configuration comprises a center where all of the subdivisions conjoin.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein N equals 4 and the multi-node configuration comprises a bow tie.

7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the multi-node configuration is a flower having N petals.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein N equals 4.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the number of materials in at least one layer of the multi-node purge tower comprises two or more part materials and a support material.

10 . A method of printing a multi-material part in a layer-wise manner with an extrusion-based 3D printer, the method comprising:

providing a sliced digital model of a multi-material 3D part identifying a number of print heads (N) needed to print the part on the extrusion-based 3D printer;

determining a number of materials in each of the slices of the digital model;

determining the maximum number of materials (M) in a single slice, wherein M is less than or equal to N;

utilizing a digital model of a purge tower having a multi-node configuration comprising M subdivisions each having a closed geometry, each adjacent subdivision contact one another along an interface;

assigning each print head required to print the multi-material 3D part to one subdivision and to one or more toolpaths forming the one subdivision in each layer, wherein portions of the one or more toolpaths of adjacent subdivisions of the purge tower are proximate each other;

for each layer of the multi-material 3D part that utilizes less the M print heads, reassigning the assigned subdivision within the purge tower of an inactive print head in a layer to a print head that is active in the layer of the multi-material 3D part;

printing the subdivisions of each layer of the purge tower with the assigned or reassigned print heats to bring each print head utilized to print a portion of a layer or a layer of the multi-material part from a standby condition to a printing condition;

printing portions of the layer or the layer of the multi-material 3D part with the print head in the operating condition; and

repeating the printing of each layer of the purge tower with the assigned and reassigned print heads for each subdivision of the purge tower and the layer of the multi-material part until the multi material part is printed.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the multi-node configuration comprises a bow tie, flower petal, circle, square, rectangle, ellipse and a cross.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the M subdivisions in the layers of the multi-node purge tower are stacked and comprise a defined geometry with similarity or congruity.

13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the M subdivision configuration comprises a center point where all of the subdivisions conjoin.

14 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more toolpaths of the M subdivisions do not intersect or overlap.

15 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the number of materials in at least one layer of the multi-node purge tower comprises two or more part materials.

16 . A computer program product comprising non-transitory computer executable code embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performs the steps of:

generating layerwise instructions for 3D printing a multi-node purge tower having a multi-subdivision configuration in coordination with 3D printing a multi-material part from three or more material extrusion print heads in a 3D printer wherein the multi-node purge tower configuration comprises a center point where multi-subdivisions conjoin in each layer along an interface of adjacent subdivisions of the multi-node purge tower;

causing subdivisions of the layers of the multi-node purge tower to be printed using print heads required to print a corresponding layer of the multi-material part wherein the print heads are brought to a printing condition from a stand-by condition to an operating condition; and

after the print heads are brought to the printing condition, causing a multi-material part to be printed in a layerwise manner wherein the multi-material part is printed from three or more materials, inclusive of support materials, which may be dissimilar material types or formulations, different colors of the same material type, different fillers in materials of the same type, combinations thereof, or the like.

17 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the number of subdivisions per layer is equal to the number of materials used to print the multi-material part.

18 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the number of subdivisions in the multi-node purge tower is equal to the maximum number of materials used for printing a layer of the multi-material part.

19 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the subdivisions between layers of the multi-node purge tower are stacked and are congruent or similar in size.

20 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the three or more materials comprise three part materials and a support material.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (181)