Metal film for additive metal manufacturing

Patent Number: 11,117,217
Issued: 9/14/2021
Official Filing: View the Complete Patent
Abstract: A metal film for use by an additive manufacturing apparatus is described herein. The metal film has a support structure and metal voxels removably attached to the support structure by respective junctions. When a metal voxel in the metal film is impacted by an energy pulse from an energy source of the additive manufacturing apparatus, one or more junctions that attach the metal voxel to the support structure are broken, resulting in the metal voxel detaching from the metal film (at a desired location in a two-dimensional plane).
Filed: 8/31/2017
Application Number: 15/693,040
Government Interests: STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT INTEREST This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-NA0003525 awarded by the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. The Government has certain rights in the invention.