Stronger 3D prints NOW instead of 2040
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A method to drastically reduce this effect is described in an expired Stratasys patent, US1997/5653925A. As of this writing, I have not seen this feature implemented in any of the common open-source slicers. I would have expected this now-public-domain knowledge to have made its way into the slicers we use since the patent expired in 2017.
With some investigation, I believe this may be because of the 2023 patent US2023/11813789B2, to my knowledge only implemented as a proprietary in-house product of a 3d printing service house which appears to make the same claims illustrated in the 1997 Stratasys patent.
I am not expertly versed in patent law, but this patent would seem to have been granted in error. The fact that the 2023 patent actually references the Stratasys patent from 1997* makes the issuance of this patent even more baffling. At any rate, this seems like a low-hanging opportunity for a significant improvement in print strength that could benefit millions of users.
*The 2023 patent references the 1997 Stratasys patent as “teaching a process for adjusting the deposition rate .. to provide a predetermined porosity rate” but neglects to mention that the core claim of the patent was the staggered bead heights claimed.
In referencing the 1997 patent the 2023 work also gives a single-digit error in the patent number, as well as other “minor” errors in other patent numbers referenced in the patent. These misleading references could have impeded the examiner’s role in determining the validity of the patent.
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/08/f6/2b/d3d9964...
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/ea/e7/3c/2b836c9...
Looking up the 2023 patent filer leads to this: