BACKGROUND

[0001] 3D printers are used to generate three dimensional objects. One of many techniques used for 3D printing is known as additive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing invoives successively layering maieriai as controlled by a computer relying on a 3D model. 3D printers are used across a wide variety of industries (e.g., automobiles, construction, research, medicine) and may be used, for example, for prototyping, making replacement parts, recreation, and so forth. A wide variety of materials may be used for 3D printing, each having different attributes when formed into a completed object.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0002] The present application may be more fully appreciated in connection with the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like references refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

[0003] FIG- 1 illustrates an example 3D printer associated with print material selection.

[0004] FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of example operations associated with print material selection,

[00053 3 illustrates another flowchart of example operations associated with print material selection

[00003 FIG. 4 illustrates an example apparatus associated with print material selection.

[0007] FIG. 5 illustrates an example 3D printer associated with print material selection. [0008] FIG. 6 illustrates another example 3D printer associated with print material selection.

[0009] FIG- ⁷ illustrates an example computer in which example systems, and methods, and equivalents, may operate.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0010] Systems, methods, associated with print material selection are described, in various examples a 3D printer may be designed to produce items from multiple materials. This may mean that the 3D printer is capable of making whole objects from different single materials, or making objects that are themselves composed internally of different types of materials. In various examples, 3D printers may be able to select these different materials during the creation of a reproduction of an object based on an instruction regarding which of several material available to the 3D printer to use when constructing the reproduction and/or components of the reproduction.

[0011] In some examples, this instruction may be derived from a printing plan that includes both structural and compositional information regarding the reproduction to be printed. The structural information may describe, for example, the reproduction's shape, how different components of the reproduction are to be physically connected to one another, and so forth. The compositional information may describe, for example, what chemicals and/or materials the reproduction and/or components of the reproduction should be made from when it is created, properties or attributes the reproduction or its components should have, other descriptors that relate to the materials from which the reproduction is to be made, and so forth. This may allow reproductions to be created that have properties and/or attributes that are similar to an original object from which the printing plan was generated (e.g., by X-Raying the original object).

[0012] By way of illustration, in some examples, a printing plan may specify what materials to use in the 3D printing of the reproduction. Assuming these materials are available to the printer, the printer may use those materials. If the exact materials are not available, materials may be selected for printing that attempt to match the materials specified in the 3D printing of the object. In some examples, this matching may be performed by selecting similar materials to those specified in the printing plan. In other examples, materials may be selected to mimic an attribute or property (e.g., color, hardness, reactions to other materials) of a material specified in the printing plan.

[0013] Figure 1 illustrates an example 3D printer 100, it should be appreciated that the items depicted in Figure 1 are illustrative examples and many different files, data structures, techniques for selecting print materials, and so forth may operate in accordance with various examples.

[0014] Figure 1 illustrates an example 3D Printer 100 associated with print material selection. 3D printer 100 has access to a set of materials 120 that may be installed in or otherwise made available to 3D printer 100. These materials may include, for example, build materials, printing fluids, and so forth. In some examples, when a build material is combined with a printing fluid, a solid object (e.g., reproduction 195} may be formed at locations where the build material and printing fluid come in contact. Thus, reproduction 195 may be generated by successively layering build material combined with printing fluid. In other examples, a single material when appropriately manipulated (e.g., melted and subsequently cooled) may be used by 3D printer 100 to form reproduction 195.

[0015] In various examples, 3D printer 100 may rely on a 3D model 190 when creating reproduction 105. 3D mode! 190 may be based, for example, on a three- dimensional scan of an original object 199. in other examples 3D model 190 may be designed electronically, may be based on manipulation of a scan of object 199, and so forth. Going forward:, unless otherwise specified, examples will refer to a scenario where 3D printer 100 is creating a reproduction 195 from a 3D model 190 based on a scan of an original object 199. Consequently, reproduction 195 may be a near approximate copy of object 199. Assuming no deliberate changes have been made to 3D mode! 190, the degree of similarities between objeci 199 and reproduction 195 may depend on, for example, the degree of detail of 3D mode! 190, precision of components of 3D printer 100, and so forth. Generally, however, a reproduction is intended to refer to whatever item happens to be created by a 3D printer whether it is created based on a specific object a modification of that specific object, or an design generated entirely electronically (e.g., using a computer aided design application).

[0016] To create reproduction 195, 3D printer 100 may be controlled by a structure control module 130 that reads structure information from 3D model 190. The structure information may specify, for example, dimensions, shapes, sizes, and so forth of various components of object 199, which may then be generated by 3D printer 100 under the control of structure control module 130 to create reproduction 195.

[0017] in addition to structure information, 3D model 190 may also contain composition information. This may be appropriate when it is desirable that reproduction 195 shares certain properties or attributes of object 199. These physical properties may relate to, for example, color, density, and so forth,

[0018] Consequently a material control module 110 may also use composition information from 3D model 190 to ensure that reproduction 195 has these properties by controlling 3D printer 100 to use specific materials 120 when constructing reproduction 195 or components thereof. By way of illustration, if 3D printer 100 has access to a specific set of materials 120 that have similar properties except for color (e.g ., each material is a differently dyed portion of the same plastic), materiai control module 110 may read 3D model 190 and cause 3D printer 100 to select appropriate materials 120 when producing various components of reproduction 195,

[0019] In some examples, selecting appropriate materials may depend on which materials 120 are available to 3D printer 100. If materials 120 specifically identified by 3D model 190 are available, material control module 110 may control 3D printer 100 to use these specified materials when creating reproduction 195. If materials 120 specifically identified by 3D model 190, are not available, material control module 110 may control 3D printer to use suitable substitute materials. Whether a material is a suitable substitute may depend on what specific proprieties it is desired that reproduction 195 will have. By way of illustration, certain coloring decisions may be essentially equivalent or considered non-essential when creating reproduction 195, while other attributes related to how reproduction 195 will behave when in contact with other materials (e.g., hardness, chemical reactivity) may be valuable, and consequently material control moduie 110 may select suiiabie substitute materials accordingly.

[0020] in other examples, materials 120 may include a set of base materials and a set of additive materials. The base materials may cause components of reproduction 195 to be printed from a specific main category of material (e.g., glass, metal, plastic). Additive materials may cause the base materials to take on a specific physical attribute or property when mixed with a portion of base material. In some examples, mixing base materials and additive materials may facilitate creating reproductions having chemical compositions and/or materials specified by 3D model 190. For example, when creating a reproduction 195 of glass filled polycarbonate, 3D printer 100 may have access a variety of material cartridges that contain portions of various materials. These cartridges may include, for example to a "glass" cartridge, used to 3D print a glass or glass-like material, a "polycarbonate" cartridge used to print in a polycarbonate or polycarbonate-like material, and so forth. Portions of the two may be mixed with one another to create various compositions of glass fitted polycarbonate (e.g., 20%, 35%) as specified by 3D model 190.

[0021] It is appreciated that, in the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the examples. However, it is appreciated that the examples may be practiced without limitation to these specific details. In other instances, methods and structures may not be described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the description of the examples. Also, the examples may be used in combination with each other.

[0022] "Module", as used herein, includes but is not limited to hardware, firmware, software stored on a computer-readable medium or in execution on a machine, and/or combinations of each to perform a function(s) or an actionfs), and/or to cause a function or action from another module, method, and/or system. A module may include a software controlled microprocessor, a discrete module, an analog circuit, a digital circuit, a programmed module device, a memory device containing instructions, and so on. Modules may include gates, combinations of gates, or other circuit components. Where multiple logical modules are described, it may be possible to incorporate the multiple logical modules into one physical module. Similarly, where a single logical module is described, it may be possible to distribute that single logical module between multiple physical modules.

[0023] Figure 2 illustrates an example method 200 associated with print material selection, Method 200 may be embodied on a non-transitory computer- readable medium storing processor-executable instructions. The instructions, when executed by a processor, may cause the processor to perform method 200. In other examples, method 200 may exist within logic gates and/or RAM of an application specific integrated circuit,

[0024] Method 200 includes obtaining print data at 210. The print data may be based on a three-dimensional model of an object. The three-dimensional model of the object may describe a structure of the object and a composition of a component of the object. As used herein, a component of an object may be the entire object, or a smaller portion of the object as appropriate. In various examples, the three- dimensional model may describe the composition of each different component of the object at varying degrees of detail. By way of illustration, a component may be described as having a uniform composition, a composition that changes gradually over the structure of the component, specific compositions at different locations of the component, and so forth.

[0025] How print data is obtained at action 210 may depend on whether print data is obtained by a 3D printer itself, a computer to control 3D printer 210, and so forth. For example, a computer may receive the print data in the form of the three- dimensional modei of the object. A 3D printer may receive the print data in the form of instructions telling 3D printer how to build a reproduction.

[0020] In one example, the composition of the component may be a chemical composition of the component. The chemical composition of the component may describe, for example, ratios of atoms and/or molecules that make up the component. By way of illustration, a 3D model generated by applying certain X-Ray spectroscopy techniques may be able to identify specific ratios of atoms and/or molecules in a component so thai a reproduction of that component can be made with similar ratios atoms, molecules, and/or physical properties to the original component

[0027] Method 200 also includes selecting a chosen material at 220. The chosen material may be selected from a set of materials available to a printer. The materials may include, for example, build materials, printing fluids, and so forth. The chosen material may be chosen based on the composition of the component of the object. By way of illustration if the composition of the component of the object, as described in the 3D model, specifies a material available to the printer, that specific material may be chosen at action 220. If the 3D modei describes a material not available to the printer, a chosen material may be selected from materials available to the printer based on attributes and/or proprieties of the material described in the 3D mode! and on attributes and/or properties of the materials available to the printer. By way of Illustration, if the 3D model suggests a component be made having a certain hardness, a material having that property may be selected based on, for example, information available to the printer describing that material.

[00 0] Method 200 also includes controlling production of a reproduction of the object at 250. A component of the reproduction thai corresponds to the component of the object may be produced using the chosen material. This may ensure that the component of the reproduction is made to have properties and attributes that are similar to those of the object. This may be desirable so that the reproduction will behave similarly to the object under conditions (e.g., heat, reactivity, toughness) for which the object was designed.

[0029] Figure 3 illustrates another method 300 associated with print material selection. Method 300 includes several actions similar to those described above with reference to method 200 (figure 2). For exam pie, method 300 includes obtaining print data from a 3D model of an object at 310, selecting a chosen material from a set of materials at 320, and controlling production of a reproduction of the object at 350.

[0030] Method 300 also includes modifying the chosen material at 330, The chosen material may be modified with an additive material so thai the component of the reproduction has an attribute that corresponds to an attribute of the component of the object The additive material may be selected based on the composition of the component of the object, in the example, where the print data contains chemical; composition information for the component, the attribute of the reproduction may be related to the chemical composition. By way of illustration, if the composition specified in the print data describes a mixture of multiple chemicals, a base material may be chosen at 320, and one or more additives may be added at 330 so that the modified chosen material has a chemical composition similar to that specified In the print data. 0031] In another example, the attribute may be a physical property. For example, the attribute of the reproduction may be a physical property. In various examples, the physical property may relate to color, hardness, flame retardancy, mechanical strength, impact resistance, flow, stiffness, weatherahiSsty, low- temperature toughness, thermal stability, flex life, texture, durability, and so forth. By way of illustration, a certain additive material may be associated with changing a normally white plastic base material into a blue plastic. By reading a ratio of the additive to the base material from a 3D model, if may be possible to ensure that the shade of blue in the reproduction is similar to the shade of blue specified in the three dimensional model.

[0032] Method 300 also includes selecting a second chosen material. The second chosen material may also be selected from the set of materials. The second chosen material may be selected based on a second composition of a second component of the object described by the three-dimensional model of the object. In this example, when controlling production of the reproduction of the object at 350, a second component of the reproduction that corresponds to the second component of the object may be produced using the second chosen material. In this manner, materials may be chosen for each component of the reproduction until the reproduction is completed,

[00333 Figure 4 illustrates an apparatus 400 associated with print material selection. Apparatus 400 includes a 3D printer 410, 3D printer 410 may create a reproduction 490 of an object based on information describing a physical structure of the object. The information describing the physical structure of the object may be retrieved from a printing plan 499, in some examples, printing plan 499 may have been generated based on an analysis of a structure and/or a composition of an original; object, and therefore reproduction 490 may be a near approximate copy of this original object.

[0034] Apparatus 400 also includes a set of print material cartridge receptacles 420. Print material cartridge receptacles 420 may receive a set of print material cartridges. The print material cartridges may contain print materials. The print materials may include, for example, build materials, printing fluids, and so forth. Print materials may be used by 3D printer 410 when creating reproduction 490.

[0035] Apparatus 400 also includes a control module 430. Control module 430 may control which print materials are used by 3D printer 410 when 3D printer 410 is creating the reproduction 490 of the object. The print materials may be selected based on information describing compositions of components of the object. This information may also be retrieved from printing plan 499. By way of illustration, print materials may be selected based on composition similarities between compositions of the members of the print materials, and the compositions of components of the object retrieved from printing pian 499.

[0036] The print materials may include a set of base materials and a set of additive materials. An additive material may be a material that changes a physical property of a base material when a portion of the base material and a portion of the additive material are combined. In various examples, some base materials may also serve as additive materials for other base materials. Similarly, an additive material may serve as a base material to other additive materials in some circumstances.

[0037] Figure 5 illustrates a 3D printer 500. 3D printer includes a printer 510 to create a reproduction 590 of an object 3D printer 500 also includes a set of receptacles 520 to receive a set of print material cartridges. Receptacles 520 may be, for example, infernal to 3D printer 500, externa! to 3D printer 500, or connectors that connect 3D printer 500 to the print material cartridges. The print material cartridges include a set of base materials and a set of additive materials. An additive material may be a material thai changes a physical property of a base material when a portion of the base material and a portion of the additive material are combined .

[0038] 3D printer aiso includes a structure controi module 530. Structure control module may controi operation of printer 510 so that printer 510 creates a structure of reproduction 590, The structure of reproduction 590 may be created according to a structural description of the object from a printing plan 599.

[00393 System 500 aiso includes a material controi module 540. Material control module may control which print materials are used by printer 510 during creation of reproduction 590. Materia! control moduie may select print materials based on a composition description of the object in printing p!an 599. in one example, material control module 540 may also control mixing of print materials. Mixing of print materials may be performed to create a material that has a physical property that corresponds to a physical property associated with a component of the object in printing pian 599. The physical property associated with the component of the object in printing plan 599 may be, for example, color, hardness, flame retardancy, mechanical strength, impact resistance, flow, stiffness, weatherabiiity, low- temperature toughness, thermal stability, flex life, texture, durability, and so forth.

[0040] Figure 6 illustrates a 3D printer 600 associated with print material selection. 3D printer 600 includes several items similar to those described above with reference to 3D printer 500 {figure 5). For example, 3D printer 600 includes a printer 610 to create a reproduction 690 of an object, a set of print maierial receptacles 620, a structure control module 630 to controi 3D printer 610 based on a printing plan 699, and a material control modu!e 640.

[00413 3D printer 600 also includes a material identification module 650. Material identification module 650 may identify, for example, a material in a member of the set of material cartridges, a composition of a material in a member of the set of material cartridges, a property of a material in a member of the set of material cartridges, and so forth. In various examples, material identification module 650 may operate by, for example, reading data provided by a material cartridge, scanning a material in a member of the set of material cartridges, and so forth. Being able to identify materiais in material cartridges may allow 3D printer 800 to automaticaily determine which materiais are available and make decisions about which materials to use when creating reproductions 690 without a user having to make these determinations prior to operating 3D printer 800.

[0042] Figure 7 illustrates an example computer 700 In which example systems and methods, and equivalents, may operate. The exampie computer 700 may include components such as a processor 710 and a memory 720 connected fay a bus 730. Computer 700 also includes a print material selection module 740, Print material selection module 740 may perform, alone or in combination, various functions described above with reference to the exampie systems, methods, apparatuses, and so forth. In different examples, print material selection module 740 may be implemented as a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing processor- executable instructions, in hardware, software, firmware, an application specific integrated circuit, and/or combinations thereof.

[0043] The instructions may also be presented to computer 700 as data 750 and/or process 760 that are temporarily stored in memory 720 and then executed by processor 710. The processor 710 may be a variety of processors including dual microprocessor and other multi-processor architectures. Memory 720 may include non-volatile memory (e.g., read only memory) and/or volatile memory (e.g., random access memory). Memory 720 may also be, for example, a magnetic disk drive, a solid state disk drive, a floppy disk drive, a tape drive, a flash memory card, an optica! disk, and so on. Thus, memory 720 may store process 760 and/or data 750. Computer 700 may also be associated with other devices including computers, printers, peripherals, and so forth in numerous configurations (not shown).

[0044] it is appreciated thai the previous description of the disclosed examples is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present disclosure. Various modifications to these examples will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other examples without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples shown herein but is to be accorded the widesi scope consistent with the prsnciptes and novel features disclosed herein.