| CPC B29C 64/393 (2017.08) [B29C 64/165 (2017.08); B29C 64/209 (2017.08); B33Y 10/00 (2014.12); B33Y 30/00 (2014.12); B33Y 50/02 (2014.12)] | 16 Claims |
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1. An apparatus for printing a manufacturing object by additive manufacturing using solvent melding, said apparatus comprising:
a build box;
a build material reservoir holding granulized build material;
a recoater connected to said build material reservoir;
a solvent reservoir holding at least one solvent configured to meld the build material;
a printhead configured for at least two-dimensional movement within the build box and in fluid connection with the solvent reservoir;
a melding control subsystem comprising:
a control device fluidly interposed between the solvent reservoir and the printhead;
a database comprising solvent amounts associated with humidity levels;
a humidity sensor located within the build box; and
one or more controllers in electronic communications with said a melding control subsystem and comprising software instructions stored at one or more electronic storage devices, which when executed, configure one or more processors to:
receive uploaded build data for said manufacturing object;
command said recoater to individually deposit multiple layers of said granulized build material within the build box;
command said printhead to, individually and after each of said multiple layers of said granulized build material are deposited by said recoater, deposit said at least one solvent at areas of each respective one of said multiple layers of said granulized build material in accordance with said build data;
receive humidity readings from said humidity sensor;
query said database to retrieve the solvent amount associated with the humidity level matching the humidity reading; and
adjust operations of the control device to provide an amount of the at least one solvent from the solvent reservoir consistent with the solvent amount retrieved from the database.
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