Three-Dimensional Object Realization via Direct Volumetric Activation

Despite increasing levels of acceptance, traditional additive manufacturing techniques continue to suffer from a number of fundamental drawbacks that act to limit broad adoption. These drawbacks include limits on processable materials, part properties/performance, geometric deviation and repeatability. The vast majority of existing processes also rely on a point-by-point approach to generate parts, resulting in exceedingly long build times and extremely poor scaling behavior. Furthermore, in general, current systems require significant levels of complexity for operation, resulting in the need for considerable upfront capital investment as well as continuing maintenance costs. A new manufacturing approach is presented here, based upon the generation of objects from the direct creation of constituent volumetric sub-regions. This process addresses many of the limitations described above, and has the potential to significantly alter the manner with which three-dimensional objects are realized.