US Patent 11712851 Material dispensing apparatus

In one example, a material dispensing apparatus comprises a plurality of material containers, wherein the plurality of material containers comprises a first set of material containers arranged to contain a first material and a second set of material containers arranged to contain a second, different, material, and each material container of the second set is located relative to a respective material container of the first set to form a pair of material containers. In use, the material dispensing apparatus is controllable to move across a build platform of an additive manufacturing system. Each of the plurality of material containers comprises an outlet mechanism that is independently controllable, relative to outlet mechanisms of others of the plurality of material containers, such that each pair of material containers selectively dispenses at least a portion of a respective amount of material onto a respective portion of the build platform as the material dispensing apparatus moves across the build platform, such that, collectively, the plurality of material containers forms a complete layer of material on the build platform as the material dispensing apparatus performs a single pass across the build platform.