US Patent Issued to United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force on July 21 for "3D printer and methods of welding 3D printed items" (Oklahoma Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,686,172, issued on July 21, was assigned to United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force (Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio).

"3D printer and methods of welding 3D printed items" was invented by Ryan Bernardy (Guthrie, Okla.) and Thomas Koemel (Stillwater, Okla.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A 3D printer and methods for hot air welding of 3D printed items within a printing operation of the 3D printer are disclosed. These methods allow for a controlled weld between either similar or dissimilar (miscible or immiscible) 3D printed materials with hot air heated from jets near the printer head or heads."

The patent was...