For Lilian and the Indigos - Above Top Secret

FULGURITES
Fulgurites are glassy, root-like tubes formed when a lightning stroke terminates in a dry
sandy soil. The intense heating of the electrical current passing down into the soil along
an irregular path fuses (melts) the sands. Concurrently, vaporization of soil moisture and
possibly even vaporization of the sandy materials, causes the molten material to be
expanded into a tube whose diameter may be well over an inch, but whose wall is very
thin.
Arc Foaming is artificially producing this phenomenon, but with all variables under
control. The novelty to my invention is the method of arcing electricity through an
aqueous suspension in combination with the stereolithography technique of “Growing” to
form and shape an object with a stochastic foam material.
The invention consists primarily of a Grooming Head D. The Grooming Head is attached
to stereolithography technology via shaft of necessary articulation B. The Grooming
Head is passed over positively charged base plate I. Relative to its forward motion over
this base plate, a fore nozzle A dispenses a suspension E of gel : material particulate onto
the plate. The Grooming Head contains and shapes the suspension into a uniform layer of
a given shape. The side walls and nozzles of the Grooming Head may be articulated to
allow for intricate shapes but a standard rectangular profile is shown in the drawing. The
negatively charged electrode D’ , connected to external power supply/control C, is aft of
the dispensed layer of shaped suspension, it passes over the base plate with an adequate
wattage to produce desired foam via the arcing F of electricity between electrode and
base plate. This arcing simultaneously welds the particulate and vaporizes the gel leaving
behind a layer H of striated, stochastic foam that will easily fuse to the next layer. The
neg. charged electrode and Grooming Head must be of a proper material such that it does
not bond with material to be foamed. Vents G perforate the walls of the Grooming Head
in order to vent vaporized gel from the Arc Foaming Process.
VARIABLES
A variant of the Grooming Head is the Stencil-Ratcheting Head. This method allows a
continuous shape to be extruded under the head as it climbs the previous layers (as
opposed to the Grooming Head, which produces a continuous single layer). The Stencil-
Ratcheting Head requires that the nozzle, walls, and electrode be integrated into a single
piece.
As mentioned, the Arc Foaming process presents a few variables which the user may
adjust to produce different foams according to their needs:
1 – Ratio of Gel : Material Particulate
2 – Conductivity of Gel – based on material to be foamed
3 – Viscosity of Gel
4 – The wattage between neg. electrode and pos. base plate