High Productivity System for Printing Precision Articles

Abstract

A three-dimensional printing system includes a resin vessel, a support tray, a motorized carriage, a light engine, and a controller. The resin vessel has a lower side with a transparent sheet which provides a lower bound for photocurable resin contained within the vessel. The support tray has a lower face for supporting an object being fabricated. The motorized carriage is for supporting and vertically positioning the support tray. The light engine is for projecting radiation up through the transparent sheet to a build plane. The controller operates the motorized carriage and the light engine to fabricate the object. The object includes a vertical arrangement of dental arches suspended from the lower face and a plurality couplings that connect pairs of the dental arches.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method of fabricating a plurality of dental arches comprising:
 positioning a lower face of a resin tray at build plane within a resin vessel;   operating a light engine to selectively project radiation up through the resin vessel to the build plane; and   repeating positioning the resin tray and operating the light engine to define an object onto the lower face of the resin tray, the object including:
 a vertical arrangement of a plurality of dental arches suspended from the lower face; and 
 a plurality of couplings that connect pairs of the plurality of dental arches, the plurality of couplings individually connects an upper end of one of the plurality of dental arches to a dental arch above the one of the plurality of dental arches. 
   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21  wherein the plurality of dental arches individually includes an apex and two wings, the upper end is an end of one of the two wings. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22  wherein the plurality of dental arches are individually supported by two couplings that couple to an upper end of the two wings respectively. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 21  wherein a pair of the plurality of dental arches includes a lower dental arch and an upper dental arch, a pair of couplings individually couple the lower dental arch to the upper dental arch and individually couple an end of a wing of the lower dental arch to an outer surface of the upper dental arch. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 21  wherein the plurality of couplings individually defines a slot that provides a break feature for separating the coupling from the dental arch. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25  wherein the slot includes an upper slot and a lower slot and the method further comprising separating the plurality of couplings from the plurality of dental arches individually by breaking the couplings along the upper and lower slots. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 25  wherein the slot includes an upper slot and a lower slot, the upper slot for separating the coupling from an outer surface of a dental arch above the coupling, the lower slot for separating the coupling from an upper end of a wing below the coupling. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27  wherein the upper slot has a different orientation than the lower slot. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 21  further comprising a branch support that extends from an outer surface of at least one of the plurality of couplings to an upper surface of a molar defined in one of the dental arches. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 21  wherein the object includes a plurality of the vertical arrangement of dental arches. 
     
     
         31 . A method of fabricating a plurality of dental arches comprising:
 positioning a lower face of a resin tray at build plane within a resin vessel;   operating a light engine to selectively project radiation up through the resin vessel to the build plane; and   repeating positioning the resin tray and operating the light engine to define an object onto the lower face of the resin tray, the object including:
 a vertical arrangement of a plurality of dental arches including at least three dental arches, the plurality of dental arches individually including an apex and two wings; 
 a plurality of couplings that individually couple between an end of a wing of a first one of the plurality of dental arches to an outer side of a wing of a second one of the plurality of dental arches. 
   
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 31  wherein the first dental arch is below the second dental arch. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 31  wherein the two wings of the first dental arch are coupled to the second dental arch by two of the plurality of couplings. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 31  wherein the plurality of couplings individually includes at least one slot, the method further comprising separating the first dental arch and the second dental arch by physically breaking the coupling at the at least one slot. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 31  further comprising a branch support that extends from an outer surface of at least one of the plurality of couplings to an upper surface of a molar defined in one of the dental arches. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 31  wherein the object includes a plurality of the vertical arrangements of dental arches. 
     
     
         37 . A method of fabricating a plurality of dental arches comprising:
 positioning a lower face of a resin tray at build plane within a resin vessel;   operating a light engine to selectively project radiation up through the resin vessel to the build plane; and   repeating positioning the resin tray and operating the light engine to define an object onto the lower face of the resin tray, the object including:
 a plurality of dental arches arranged into at least two vertical arrangements of dental arches that individually include at least three dental arches, the plurality of dental arches individually includes an apex and a pair of wings; 
 a plurality of pairs of couplings that individually couple an end of a wing of one dental arch to a convex surface of another dental arch. 
   
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 37  wherein the pairs of couplings individually define a pair of corresponding slots and the method including breaking the pair of couplings along the pair of slots to separate pairs of the plurality of dental arches. 
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 37  further comprising a branch support that extends from an outer surface of at least one of the plurality of couplings to an upper surface of a molar defined in one of the dental arches. 
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 37  wherein the at least two vertical arrangements include at least three vertical arrangements.