Apparatus for producing an object using stereolithography

US5665401A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems · DE

Inventors

• Jurgen Serbin · Gräfelfing, DE
• Peter Wolff · Heimerzheim, DE
• Gabriele Krug · Hersbruck, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 24, 1996
• Grant date: Sep 9, 1997
• Expiry date: Apr 24, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B33Y40/00
• WIPO field: Other special machines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

An apparatus for producing an object using stereolithography includes a container, a bath of a liquid or powder material filling the container and having a free surface, the material being solidifiable under the action of electromagnetic radiation, a support for positioning the object relative to the free surface of the bath so as to form a layer of the material adjacent to the free surface, a device for solidifying the layer using electromagnetic radiation, a wiper device extending along a first direction across the free surface and drive means for moving the wiper device across the free surface along a second direction. In order to achieve optimum wiping conditions the wiper device has a leading first surface portion and a trailing second surface portion when moving along the second direction, the first and second surface portions extending in the first direction, the first surface portion having a first surface tension value and the second surface portion having a second surface tension value different from the first surface tension value.