US 12,459,200 B2
Solid state routing of patterned light for additive manufacturing optimization
James A. DeMuth, Woburn, MA (US); Francis L. Leard, Sudbury, MA (US); and Erik Toomre, Los Altos, CA (US)
Assigned to Seurat Technologies, Inc., Wilmington, MA (US)
Filed by Seurat Technologies, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on May 11, 2018, as Appl. No. 15/977,476.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/504,853, filed on May 11, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2018/0326664 A1, Nov. 15, 2018
Int. Cl. B29C 64/282 (2017.01); B22F 10/28 (2021.01); B22F 10/30 (2021.01); B22F 10/36 (2021.01); B22F 10/70 (2021.01); B22F 10/85 (2021.01); B22F 12/41 (2021.01); B22F 12/44 (2021.01); B22F 12/45 (2021.01); B22F 12/49 (2021.01); B29C 64/153 (2017.01); B29C 64/268 (2017.01); B33Y 10/00 (2015.01); B33Y 30/00 (2015.01)
CPC B29C 64/282 (2017.08) [B22F 10/28 (2021.01); B22F 10/36 (2021.01); B22F 10/85 (2021.01); B22F 12/44 (2021.01); B22F 12/49 (2021.01); B29C 64/153 (2017.08); B29C 64/268 (2017.08); B22F 10/30 (2021.01); B22F 10/70 (2021.01); B22F 12/41 (2021.01); B22F 12/45 (2021.01); B33Y 10/00 (2014.12); B33Y 30/00 (2014.12)] 7 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A three-dimensional printing apparatus, comprising
a processor;
a spatial angular light valve connected to the processor, the spatial angular light valve comprising multiple discrete zones acting under multiple respective voltages applied by the processor in a linear pattern, wherein each zone steers light be refraction to a different direction according to the zone's applied voltage;
a powder bed configured to receive a two-dimensional patterned light beam for fusing powder into a printed object, wherein the two-dimensional patterned light beam is patterned by a superposition of linear deflections of light beams passing through and refracted by the multiple discrete zones of the spatial angular light valve;
a rejected energy handling system configured to receive rejected energy of a negative image from the spatial angular light valve; and
wherein the processor is further configured to apply a repeating stripe pattern across the spatial angular light valve in order to cause a time-varying splay rotation causing the spatial angular light valve to act as a prism that produced time-varying change in an angle of two or more angles.