ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING PROCESS WITH DYNAMIC HEAT FLOW CONTROL

摘要

A liquefier assembly for use in an additive manufacturing system, which includes a rigid member having a gap, a liquefier tube operably disposed in the gap, one or more heater assemblies disposed in the gap in contact with the liquefier tube, and configured to heat the liquefier tube in a zone-by-zone manner, preferably one or more thermal resistors disposed in the gap between the rigid member and the heater assemblies, and preferably one or more sensors configured to operably measure pressure within the liquefier tube. The one or more heater assemblies may be operated to provide dynamic heat flow control.

主权项

1. A method for printing a three-dimensional part with an additive manufacturing system, the method comprising:
feeding a consumable material to a liquefier tube retained by the additive manufacturing system at multiple feed rates; heating the liquefier tube over multiple heating zones to melt the consumable material received in the liquefier tube; dynamically adjusting the heating of the liquefier tube over the multiple heating zones based at least in part of the feed rates of the consumable material to the liquefier tube; and extruding the molten consumable material from a nozzle retained by the liquefier tube.