Importance

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Abstract

This is a method and associated apparatus for creating a 3-dimensional model by curing a photocurable liquid polymer. The method comprises first placing a quantity of the photocurable liquid polymer in a container. A substrate upon which to build the model is then placed in the container and in the polymer. A knife member is positioned over the substrate with a bottom edge parallel to the substrate at a layer-spaced distance therefrom. The knife member is then moved over the substrate and parallel thereto from a starting side edge of the model to an opposite side edge of the model while a 1-dimensional pattern of light beams for curing the liquid polymer is simultaneously created and conducted to a line at and parallel to the bottom edge of the knife member and therefrom into the liquid polymer immediately behind the bottom edge of the knife member to cure a layer of the polymer and thereby form a layer of the model. The knife member is then raised over the layer just created so as to place the bottom edge parallel to that layer at a layer-spaced distance therefrom. This process is then repeating until the model had been formed in a line-by-line and layer-by-layer pattern from a bottom layer to a top layer.

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First Claim