Stick Tech Oy has patented another odd little piece of the 3D printing workflow, and now the pattern is getting harder to ignore.
The latest application, EP4778699A1, describes a method for sealing a printer nozzle after a job. The printer extrudes a small amount of material to the nozzle tip, cures that material into a plug, and later removes the plug before printing again.
That sounds quite unusual, and a method we’ve never heard of previously. It is basically a deliberate clog.
That is probably better than the usual kind of clog. A random clog inside a nozzle means cleaning, downtime, wasted material, and possibly a ruined printhead. A controlled seal at the nozzle tip could protect material inside the nozzle until the next job.
The patent is assigned to Stick Tech Oy of Finland. Stick Tech is not a familiar 3D printer brand. It is a dental materials company, known around fiber reinforced composite dental materials such as Stick and everStick, which are sold through GC channels. Public company records also describe it as a manufacturer of medical and dental instruments and supplies.
So, do they make a 3D printer today? I cannot find any public evidence that they currently sell one under the Stick Tech name.
But their patents are beginning to look printer shaped.
Earlier this year, we covered another Stick Tech patent, EP4741139A1, for getting prints off the build surface. That one described printing on a removable elastomer sheet, then bending the sheet in a controlled way to pop the finished part loose. A stick like mechanism appeared to slide under the sheet to create the bend.
Now we have a nozzle sealing method. Put the two together and you get something interesting: one patent handles print removal, and the other handles nozzle storage between prints.
Could they be developing some kind of unusual 3D printer?
This new nozzle patent is especially aimed at deposition based printing with curable materials. The examples used a Brinter ONE printer and dental resin formulations, including UDMA and TEGDMA systems, fillers, initiators, and commercial G-aenial Flo dental resins from GC Corporation. The seal was formed with UV light and removed by hand, with a blade, or with a metallic thread cured into the plug.
That thread idea is kinda weird: Cure a small plug around a metal thread, then pull the thread to yank the plug away.
The patent also describes possible sensors for pressure, material flow, and seal verification, plus coaxial nozzles that could deliver protective or oxygen blocking materials through separate channels.
Are the two Stick Tech patents related? Not legally from the documents alone, at least not in any way I can prove here.
Both are about making a 3D printer reset itself after a job. Remove the part without scraping. Seal the nozzle without cleaning. Prepare for the next print with fewer manual steps.
My suspicion is that Stick Tech is exploring a dental printing workflow, not a general purpose desktop machine. Dental materials are their home turf, and dental production loves repeatability, validated materials, and reduced operator fuss.
We will have to keep watch on Stick Tech to see if they have product announcements in the future.
Via Espacenet
