http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2014/0070461.html By reversing the direction of a first build material fed into an extruder,

3D Printing
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#Makerbot #Patents

By reversing the direction of a first build material fed into an extruder, the first build material can be wholly or partially evacuated from the extruder before a second material is introduced. This approach mitigates transition artifacts and permits faster, more complete changes from one build material to another.

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This one is adorable.

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What a massive innovation, nobody would ever think of that (* sarcasm). But really, wtf even bother, youve still got the bulk and weight of extuder motors etc, unless the nozzle can blend colours you might as well have made a slightly bigger heating block with two chambers and nozzles on it.

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Are patents valid if they are based on the well documented work of others?

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@Matthew_Satterlee no you need to submit a prior art complaint.

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I saw a great post about this very topic last year on the RichRap blog… Hmmm…

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haven’t you posted this like two years ago - so you actually own the prior art, right?

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Thieves, it is like Nicola Telsa and Edison.

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I always dreamt that the content of the “http://freepatentsonline.com” name was actually free… MKI really proves to have lost all its values. I hope @bre_pettis will at least be sleeping uncomfortably for a while given his former talks on open source. As was said now this is even not Stratasys but really Makerbot. Oh he personally got some huge money for sure. What a shame!