US Patent Issued to VulcanForms on March 31 for "Powder dispensing system for additive manufacturing" (Massachusetts Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,589,435, issued on March 31, was assigned to VulcanForms Inc. (Devens, Mass.).

"Powder dispensing system for additive manufacturing" was invented by Lucas Buermeyer (Ayer, Mass.) and William Curtis Stone (Medford, Mass.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "System and method for dispensing powder material for an additive manufacturing system. A hopper can include a spline configured for rotation to dispense powder material from an exit opening of the hopper. A shield can be provided for one or both ends of the spline to help control powder movement at an interface with the spline, e.g., so powder that passes the interface is trapped in a space...