DEVICE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING CUSTOMIZABLE THREE-DIMENSIONAL OBJECTS

摘要

A device, method and layered product produced from the method are disclosed. The method uses new fabrication steps involving stratified additive manufacturing. Steps include preparing continuous ribbons of solid first material and possibly a second material; rolling continuous ribbon onto a spool held within a feeder cassette configured to dispense continuous ribbon through a slit; loading each feeder cassette onto an engagement dock; dispensing on the bed of the machine a first strip of continuous ribbon; cutting it to a length and having an end profile as directed by digital specification programmed on the machine; and creating a layered object by dispensing, cutting and applying additional strips of continuous ribbon atop the previously dispensed strips in accordance with the digital specification. The apparatus includes a computer numerical control machine feeding strips of ribbon from the feeder cassettes loaded in an engagement dock.

主权项

1. A method of producing a product using stratified additive manufacturing, the method comprising the steps of:
preparing a plurality of continuous ribbons of first material, said first material having a solid state, the plurality of continuous ribbons comprising a plurality of different widths; rolling each continuous ribbon in the plurality of continuous ribbons onto a spool held within a feeder cassette so that each feeder cassette holds one roll of continuous ribbon and so that there are a plurality of feeder cassettes, each feeder cassette configured to dispense continuous ribbon through a slit in said feeder cassette; loading each feeder cassette in the plurality of feeder cassettes onto an engagement dock of a computer numerical control machine; dispensing above the computer numerical control machine a first portion of continuous ribbon from a first feeder cassette in the plurality of feeder cassettes while preserving the solid state of the first portion; cutting the first portion to a length and having an end profile as directed by digital specification programmed on the computer numerical control machine; and creating a layered object by dispensing, cutting and applying additional portions of continuous ribbon from one or more feeder cassettes in the plurality of feeder cassettes where each of the additional portions has a butt joint with a previously dispensed portion or is added atop the previously dispensed portion in accordance with the digital specification programmed on the computer numerical control machine.