CN107414080B - Liquid metal 3D prints shower nozzle device and is equipped with device's 3D printer - Google Patents
Liquid metal 3D prints shower nozzle device and is equipped with device's 3D printer Download PDFInfo
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- CN107414080B CN107414080B CN201610346359.3A CN201610346359A CN107414080B CN 107414080 B CN107414080 B CN 107414080B CN 201610346359 A CN201610346359 A CN 201610346359A CN 107414080 B CN107414080 B CN 107414080B
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- 239000007788 liquid Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 59
- 238000010146 3D printing Methods 0.000 claims abstract description 41
- 238000007639 printing Methods 0.000 claims abstract description 29
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- 230000009471 action Effects 0.000 claims abstract description 10
- 238000001816 cooling Methods 0.000 claims description 23
- 238000003860 storage Methods 0.000 claims description 23
- PEDCQBHIVMGVHV-UHFFFAOYSA-N Glycerine Chemical compound OCC(O)CO PEDCQBHIVMGVHV-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims description 21
- 229910052751 metal Inorganic materials 0.000 claims description 21
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- GYHNNYVSQQEPJS-UHFFFAOYSA-N Gallium Chemical compound [Ga] GYHNNYVSQQEPJS-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims description 16
- 229910052733 gallium Inorganic materials 0.000 claims description 16
- 239000000243 solution Substances 0.000 claims description 16
- HEMHJVSKTPXQMS-UHFFFAOYSA-M Sodium hydroxide Chemical compound [OH-].[Na+] HEMHJVSKTPXQMS-UHFFFAOYSA-M 0.000 claims description 15
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Classifications
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- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B22—CASTING; POWDER METALLURGY
- B22F—WORKING METALLIC POWDER; MANUFACTURE OF ARTICLES FROM METALLIC POWDER; MAKING METALLIC POWDER; APPARATUS OR DEVICES SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR METALLIC POWDER
- B22F3/00—Manufacture of workpieces or articles from metallic powder characterised by the manner of compacting or sintering; Apparatus specially adapted therefor ; Presses and furnaces
- B22F3/115—Manufacture of workpieces or articles from metallic powder characterised by the manner of compacting or sintering; Apparatus specially adapted therefor ; Presses and furnaces by spraying molten metal, i.e. spray sintering, spray casting
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B33—ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
- B33Y—ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, i.e. MANUFACTURING OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL [3-D] OBJECTS BY ADDITIVE DEPOSITION, ADDITIVE AGGLOMERATION OR ADDITIVE LAYERING, e.g. BY 3-D PRINTING, STEREOLITHOGRAPHY OR SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING
- B33Y30/00—Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor
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- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
- Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
- Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
- Materials Engineering (AREA)
Abstract
The invention relates to the technical field of 3D printing equipment, in particular to a liquid metal 3D printing spray head device and a 3D printer with the same. The liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device comprises a liquid drop generating mechanism for generating liquid metal micro-drops, wherein the liquid drop generating mechanism comprises a liquid metal micro-channel and a main fluid micro-channel which are arranged in an intersecting manner, under the action of the shearing force of continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid micro-channel, the liquid metal in the liquid metal micro-channel can be uniformly dispersed into a plurality of groups of liquid metal micro-drops, and the liquid metal micro-drops with uniform and controllable size and adjustable speed are generated by utilizing the action of the shearing force between the two fluids and are solidified and overlapped, so that 3D printing is realized. The device has the advantages of simple processing process, batch copying, good controllability, high stability, small volume, uniform micro-droplet generation speed, controllable size and the like, and can realize high-precision droplet accumulation printing of liquid metal.
Description
Technical Field
The invention relates to the technical field of 3D printing equipment, in particular to a liquid metal 3D printing spray head device and a 3D printer with the same.
Background
The 3D printing technology is one of the rapid prototyping technologies, also called additive manufacturing technology, and is based on a digital model file designed by a computer, uses the material of an object itself, such as nylon material, gypsum material, metal material, rubber and the like, as "ink", and builds and creates a component with different layers. In general, an article is manufactured by printing ink materials such as plastic, metal or ceramic powder layer by using methods such as fused deposition modeling (abbreviated as FDM), electron beam free forming manufacturing (abbreviated as EBF), layered solid manufacturing (abbreviated as LOM) and the like.
For 3D printing of pure metals, alloys and other materials, three typical processes of selective laser sintering (abbreviated as SLS), laser engineering net forming (abbreviated as LENS) and electron beam selective melting (abbreviated as EBSM) are mostly adopted at present. In these processes, metal powder is used as printing ink, and cooling molding is performed in gas. The 3D metal printing technology comprehensively applying the computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technology, material science, precise mechanical control and other knowledge and technology has the advantages that compared with the traditional material reduction manufacturing technology, the 3D metal printing technology greatly shortens the product development period, accelerates the manufacturing speed of new products, reduces the cost, and has wide application prospects in the jewelry, industrial design, construction, engineering and construction (AEC), automobile, aerospace, dental and medical industries and other fields. 3D metal printing is therefore an important development direction of current metal fabrication technology. However, since the conventional metal materials such as copper, aluminum and the like have extremely high melting points, extremely high sintering temperature is often required, so that the printing process has high energy consumption and great control difficulty; the effect of the component is weaker in the conventional air cooling, the solidification forming time of the structural part is overlong, the control of the printing process is difficult, and improvement is needed; in addition, the transportation and spraying processes of the molten metal or metal powder are complex, and are generally controlled by adopting a mechanical pump and a moving part, and all the factors lead to the large and complex overall structure of the traditional metal printing equipment, and the traditional metal printing equipment is high in price, so that the traditional metal printing equipment is not easy to popularize in the public or families.
Low melting point liquid metals have not been used for printing materials, but the low-melting point metal has high heat conductivity and low viscosity, the melting solidification process is easy to realize, and the application of the melting solidification process in the technical field of printing is a brand new subject.
In addition, conventional metal 3D printing techniques remain limited in size, with minimum sizes only reaching the order of 100 to several hundred microns, the development of the existing metal 3D printing technology is restricted to a great extent.
In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the background art, the present invention provides a liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device and a 3D printer provided with the same. .
Disclosure of Invention
First, the technical problem to be solved
The invention aims to solve the technical problem of providing a liquid metal 3D printing spray head device and a 3D printer provided with the device, which can realize high-precision droplet accumulation printing of liquid metal.
(II) technical scheme
In order to solve the technical problems, the invention provides a liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device, which is characterized by comprising a liquid drop generating mechanism for generating liquid metal micro drops, wherein the liquid drop generating mechanism comprises a liquid metal micro flow channel and a main fluid micro flow channel which are arranged in an intersecting way, and under the action of the shearing force of continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid micro flow channel, the liquid metal in the liquid metal micro flow channel can be uniformly dispersed into a plurality of groups of liquid metal micro drops.
Further, the number of the main fluid micro-channels is at least two, and the two main fluid micro-channels are respectively and oppositely communicated with two sides of the liquid metal micro-channel and are intersected with the liquid metal micro-channel at a certain angle; and the tail end of the liquid metal micro-channel is communicated with a nozzle.
Further, the liquid drop generating mechanism further comprises a liquid metal liquid storage tank, one end of the liquid metal liquid storage tank is communicated with the liquid metal micro-runner, the other end of the liquid metal liquid storage tank is connected with a pressure control mechanism through a liquid metal pressure inlet, and the pressure control mechanism is used for driving and controlling the flowing speed of the liquid metal in the liquid metal liquid storage tank to the liquid metal micro-runner; the liquid metal liquid storage tank is provided with a liquid metal injection opening.
Further, the main fluid micro-channel is communicated with a main fluid sampling bottle through a main fluid sample inlet, and the main fluid sampling bottle is communicated with a pressure control mechanism so as to drive and control the flow speed of continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid micro-channel.
Further, the pressure control mechanism is a pneumatic micro-fluid sample injection system, an injection pump or a peristaltic pump.
Further, the liquid drop generating device also comprises a heating temperature control mechanism, wherein the heating temperature control mechanism is used for controlling the temperature of the liquid metal in the liquid drop generating mechanism.
Further, the heating temperature control mechanism comprises a thermoelectric sheet, an electric heating wire and a thermocouple, wherein the thermoelectric sheet is arranged at the outer side of the liquid drop generating mechanism, and the electric heating wire is arranged in the liquid drop generating mechanism so as to control the temperature of liquid metal in the liquid drop generating mechanism; the temperature measuring end of the thermocouple stretches into the liquid drop generating mechanism to measure the temperature of liquid metal in the liquid drop generating mechanism.
Further, the solidification temperature of the liquid metal in the liquid metal micro-channel is less than or equal to 200 ℃; preferably, the liquid metal is one or a mixture of a gallium simple substance metal, gallium indium alloy, gallium indium tin alloy, bismuth indium tin alloy or bismuth indium tin zinc alloy.
Further, the continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid micro-channel comprises one or more of glycerol solution, sodium hydroxide solution or silicone oil solution.
The invention also provides a 3D printer comprising a printing base, a cooling device and a liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8, the printing base station is correspondingly arranged at the lower part of the liquid metal 3D printing spray head device, and the cooling device is arranged at the lower part of the printing base station.
(III) beneficial effects
The technical scheme of the invention has the following beneficial effects:
1. the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device comprises a liquid drop generating mechanism for generating liquid metal micro-drops, wherein the liquid drop generating mechanism comprises a liquid metal micro-channel and a main fluid micro-channel which are arranged in an intersecting way, under the action of the shearing force of continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid micro-channel, the liquid metal in the liquid metal micro-channel can be uniformly dispersed into a plurality of groups of liquid metal micro-drops, and the liquid metal micro-drops with uniform and controllable size and adjustable speed are generated by utilizing the action of the shearing force between the two fluids and are solidified and overlapped, so that 3D printing is realized;
2. the liquid metal micro-flow channel and the main fluid micro-flow channel of the invention are respectively connected with the pressure control device, the speed of two mutually-insoluble fluids can be controlled by respectively adjusting the sample injection speed or the pressure of the two liquids, thereby precisely controlling the generated liquid metal the size of the microdroplet and the ejection speed, so that the printed microdroplets reach the order of a few micrometers or even hundreds of nanometers.
3. Because the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device drives fluid by utilizing mechanical force and does not have external power input driving equipment, the danger and the interference of electric leakage are avoided, various complex insulating measures such as coating processing and the like are reduced, and the energy consumption is reduced;
4. this liquid metal 3D prints shower nozzle device adopts heating temperature regulating mechanism, cooperatees with the cooling device who sets up on 3D printer for this 3D printer widens greatly to the kind scope of the low-melting point liquid metal of printing, and the range of application is wider.
In summary, the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device is manufactured by adopting a micromachining method, and has the advantages of simple processing process, batch reproduction, good controllability, high stability, small volume, uniform micro-droplet generation speed, controllable size and the like, and can realize high-precision droplet accumulation printing of liquid metal.
Drawings
In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings that are required in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly described, it being obvious that the drawings in the following description are only embodiments of the invention and that other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.
FIG. 1 shows a liquid metal according to an embodiment of the present invention an exploded schematic view of the 3D print head device;
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of the present invention a cross-sectional view of the droplet generation mechanism;
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a liquid metal reservoir according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the generation of liquid metal micro-droplets in a liquid metal micro-channel according to an embodiment of the present invention;
fig. 5 is an isometric view of a 3D printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Wherein: 1. a liquid metal microchannel; 2. a primary fluid microchannel; 3. a liquid metal reservoir; 4. a liquid metal injection port; 5. a liquid metal pressure inlet; 6. a main fluid sample inlet; 7. a nozzle; 8-1, thermoelectric sheets; 8-2, thermocouple; 9. a pressure control mechanism; 10. a cooling device; 11. main fluid a sample bottle; 12. and (5) printing a base station.
Detailed Description
Embodiments of the present invention are described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. The following examples are illustrative of the invention but are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
In the description of the present invention, unless otherwise indicated, the meaning of "a plurality" is two or more. The terms "upper," "lower," "left," "right," "inner," "outer," "front," "rear," "head," "tail," and the like are used as an orientation or positional relationship based on that shown in the drawings, merely to facilitate description of the invention and to simplify the description, and do not indicate or imply that the devices or elements referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore should not be construed as limiting the invention.
As shown in fig. 1 and 4, the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device provided in this embodiment includes a droplet generation mechanism for generating liquid metal micro droplets, where the droplet generation mechanism includes a liquid metal micro flow channel 1 and a main fluid micro flow channel 2 that are disposed in an intersecting manner, and the liquid metal micro flow channel 1 and the main fluid micro flow channel 2 are disposed in an intersecting manner to form a micro flow channel of a flow focusing structure, and under the action of a shearing force of a continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid micro flow channel 2, the liquid metal in the liquid metal micro flow channel 1 can be uniformly dispersed into a plurality of groups of liquid metal micro droplets, and when the continuous phase main fluid passes through the liquid metal, the liquid metal can be dispersed into spherical liquid metal micro droplets with uniform size and controllable size under the action of a shearing force of the continuous phase main fluid, and these liquid metal micro droplets are uniformly sprayed on a printing base by a nozzle 7, so that stacked 3D printing can be realized. Wherein the arrow direction shown in fig. 4 is the flow direction of the continuous phase main fluid.
In order to ensure that the 3D printing effect is achieved, in the preferred embodiment, the liquid metal in the liquid metal micro-channel 1 is low-melting-point liquid metal, the solidification temperature of the liquid metal is less than or equal to 200 ℃, and more preferred liquid metal is one or a mixture of a gallium simple substance metal, a gallium indium alloy, a gallium indium tin alloy, a bismuth indium tin alloy or a bismuth indium tin zinc alloy; the continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid micro-channel 2 comprises one or more of glycerol solution, sodium hydroxide solution or silicone oil solution, preferably a mixed solution of glycerol and sodium hydroxide solution, or a solution with similar viscosity such as silicone oil, and in this embodiment, the continuous phase main fluid is preferably formed by mixing glycerol and sodium hydroxide solution with mass fraction of 30% in a volume ratio of 9:1.
The liquid metal and the continuous phase main fluid of the materials are selected, so that the mutual incompatibility of the two solutions can be ensured, and the liquid metal can be rapidly divided into liquid metal micro-droplets.
In the micro flow channel of the flow focusing structure of the embodiment, as shown in fig. 2 and 3, at least two main fluid micro flow channels 2 are provided, and the two main fluid micro flow channels 2 are respectively and oppositely communicated with two sides of the liquid metal micro flow channel 1 and are all intersected with the liquid metal micro flow channel 1 at a certain angle; the end of the liquid metal micro-channel 1 is communicated with a nozzle 7, and in the process that the liquid metal flows to the nozzle 7 along the liquid metal micro-channel 1, the liquid metal is divided into liquid metal micro-droplets by the shearing force of continuous phase main fluid flowing in the main fluid micro-channel 2 which are relatively communicated, so that the liquid metal flowing out of the nozzle 7 is the liquid metal micro-droplets which uniformly drop out.
In this embodiment, the height and width of the liquid metal micro-channel 1, the main fluid micro-channel 2 and the nozzle 7 can be made into various sizes, the order of magnitude can be from hundred nanometers to millimeter, and in this embodiment, the size of the channel with the width of 200 μm×the height of 150 μm is adopted.
It should be noted that, the distribution structures of the main fluid micro-channel 2 and the liquid metal micro-channel 1 in this embodiment may be the flow focusing structure shown in fig. 2, where the main fluid micro-channel 2 intersects and communicates with each other from two sides of the liquid metal micro-channel 1, so that the continuous phase main fluid flows transversely, the liquid metal flows longitudinally, and the liquid metal flowing longitudinally is divided by using the shearing force of the transverse flow of the continuous phase main fluid, so as to obtain liquid metal micro-droplets; the distribution structure of the main fluid micro flow channel 2 and the liquid metal micro flow channel 1 may also be designed as a T-shaped flow channel structure or a coaxial flow channel structure to generate uniform liquid metal micro droplets.
The droplet generation mechanism further comprises a liquid metal liquid storage tank 3, and a liquid metal injection opening 4 is arranged on the liquid metal liquid storage tank 3, so that liquid metal can be supplemented into the liquid metal liquid storage tank 3. One end of the liquid metal liquid storage tank 3 is communicated with the liquid metal micro-runner 1, the other end is connected with a pressure control mechanism 9 through a liquid metal pressure inlet 5, the pressure control mechanism 9 drives and controls the flowing speed of liquid metal in the liquid metal liquid storage tank 3 into the liquid metal micro-runner 1 by utilizing pressure, the pressure control mechanism 9 can be simultaneously connected with the main fluid micro-runner 2, the flowing speed of continuous phase main fluid can be driven and controlled by utilizing pressure, and the speeds of two mutually-insoluble fluids can be controlled by respectively adjusting the sample injection speed or the pressure of the two liquids, so that the size and the injection speed of liquid metal micro-drops are accurately controlled, and the printed micro-drops reach the order of several micrometers or even hundreds of nanometers; in addition, the pressure driving mechanism drives fluid by using mechanical force, and no external electric power is input into the driving equipment, so that the danger and interference of electric leakage are avoided, various complex insulating measures such as coating processing and the like are reduced, and the energy consumption is reduced. Preferably, the pressure control mechanism 9 is a pneumatic microfluidic sample injection system, a syringe pump or a peristaltic pump.
The main fluid micro-channel 2 is communicated with a main fluid sampling bottle through a main fluid sample inlet 6, and the main fluid sampling bottle is communicated with a pressure control mechanism 9 so as to drive and control the flow speed of continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid micro-channel 2.
The liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device of the embodiment further comprises a heating temperature control mechanism, wherein the heating temperature control mechanism is used for controlling the temperature of the liquid metal in the liquid drop generating mechanism, and the heating temperature control mechanism can be used for heating the liquid metal micro-channel 1 and even the whole liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device to ensure that the liquid metal is in a molten state.
The heating temperature control mechanism comprises a thermoelectric sheet 8-1, an electric heating wire and a thermocouple 8-2, wherein the thermoelectric sheet 8-1 is arranged at the outer side of the liquid drop generating mechanism, the electric heating wire is arranged in the liquid drop generating mechanism so as to control the temperature of liquid metal in the liquid drop generating mechanism, and the temperature measuring end of the thermocouple 8-2 stretches into the liquid drop generating mechanism so as to measure the temperature of the liquid metal in the liquid drop generating mechanism.
It should be noted that, the heating temperature control mechanism may be an electric heating block or an electric heating sheet in addition to the combination of the thermoelectric sheet 8-1, the electric heating wire and the thermocouple 8-2, and the electric heating block or the electric heating sheet may be applied to the outer side of the droplet generation mechanism to ensure the heating effect; the electric heating wire can be an electric heating wire formed by micro-channels filled with gallium-based alloy or liquid conductive materials such as molten salt, or can be a solid conductive built-in electric heating wire formed by sputtering, spraying or solidifying and the like.
As shown in fig. 5, the 3D printer provided in this embodiment includes a printing base 12, a cooling device 10, and the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device as described above, where the printing base 12 is correspondingly disposed at the lower part of the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device, and is correspondingly disposed with the nozzle 7, as a place where liquid metal microdroplets are deposited and printed; the cooling device 10 is arranged at the lower part of the printing base 12, and the cooling device 10 is used for rapidly cooling the printed liquid metal micro-droplets to solidify and maintain the shape so as to perform multilayer superposition printing; the cooling device 10 is preferably a cold state, or an electric heating plate, or a refrigerating plate, or a liquid cooling bath, etc. The 3D printer has the advantages of simple processing process, good controllability, high stability, uniform micro-droplet generation speed and controllable size, and in addition, the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device adopts a heating temperature control system to be combined with the cooling device 10 on the 3D printer, so that the variety range of the 3D printer for the printed low-melting-point liquid metal is greatly widened, and the application range is wider.
In this embodiment, the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device may be manufactured by a micro-machining method (MEMS for short) or a Soft etching method (Soft-Lithography for short), and the inside of the device may be a multi-layer PDMS layer structure made of a polymer material PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane for short, all chinese for short) applied in the micro-fluidic field, and the liquid metal liquid storage tank 3 penetrates through the PDMS layer in which the liquid metal liquid storage tank 3 is located, so that the design has the advantage of using good heat conducting capability of the liquid metal while expanding the capacity of the liquid metal liquid storage tank 3 as much as possible, and enhancing the heat transfer of the electrothermal sheet so as to better heat and keep the metal in the liquid storage tank in a molten state; the liquid metal micro-channel 1, the main fluid micro-channel 2, the liquid metal liquid storage tank 3 and the nozzle 7 are all manufactured into a form of an integral micro-fluidic chip in a micro-processing mode, and four layers of PDMS are bonded into a whole after surface plasma treatment by a plasma cleaning machine layer by layer; the liquid metal injection port 4, the liquid metal pressure inlet 5 and the main fluid injection port 6 are directly perforated on the corresponding PDMS layer by using a puncher so as to be connected with the corresponding input pipeline.
The heating temperature control device can adopt an electric heating plate, or an electric heating block, or a thermoelectric plate 8-1, etc., and in the embodiment, the electric heating plate is wrapped around the liquid metal liquid storage tank 3 of the microfluidic chip and is used for melting and keeping the metal borne in the liquid metal liquid storage tank; the pressure control mechanism 9 can adopt a pneumatic micro-fluid sample injection system, or an injection pump, or a peristaltic pump, etc., and in the embodiment, the pneumatic micro-fluid sample injection system is adopted, because the instrument can accurately control the fluid driving pressure, the operation is simple, and the pneumatic control is stable; the main fluid sample bottle 11 is internally provided with main fluid solution, and is respectively connected with a main fluid sample inlet 6 and a pneumatic micro-fluid sample injection system through two pipelines; the liquid metal pressure inlet 5 is connected to the pneumatic micro-fluid sample injection system through a pipeline; the cooling device 10 may be a cooling table, an electric heating plate, a refrigerating plate, a liquid cooling bath, or the like, and in this embodiment, a glycerol aqueous solution with a volume fraction of 66% is used, and a container is placed on the cooling table to keep the temperature of the glycerol aqueous solution at about minus 35 degrees, and cooling in the solution has the advantage of increasing the cooling area and rapidly cooling and molding the printed liquid metal microdroplets.
The low-melting-point liquid metal can be gallium-based alloys such as gallium, gallium indium and gallium indium tin, bismuth indium tin zinc and the like, the melting points of the metals are below 200 ℃, gallium is adopted as printing ink in the embodiment, the temperature of the electric heating plate is increased to about 40 ℃, and the liquid metal gallium in a molten state is injected into the liquid metal liquid storage tank 3; after connecting the pipes, the numerical value of each channel in the droplet generation mechanism is adjusted, so that the driving pressure of the two fluids is controlled, and the required liquid metal micro-droplets are generated, and the size of the liquid metal micro-droplets can be changed from a few micrometers to a millimeter.
In summary, the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device and the 3D printer of the embodiment have the following advantages:
1. the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device comprises a liquid drop generating mechanism for generating liquid metal micro-drops, wherein the liquid drop generating mechanism comprises a liquid metal micro-channel 1 and a main fluid micro-channel 2 which are arranged in an intersecting manner, under the action of the shearing force of continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid micro-channel 2, the liquid metal in the liquid metal micro-channel 1 can be uniformly dispersed into a plurality of groups of liquid metal micro-drops, and the liquid metal micro-drops with uniform and controllable size and adjustable speed are generated by utilizing the action of the shearing force between the two fluids and are solidified and overlapped, so that 3D printing is realized;
2. the liquid metal micro-channel 1 and the main fluid micro-channel 2 are respectively connected with the pressure control mechanism 9, and the speeds of two mutually-insoluble fluids can be controlled by respectively adjusting the injection speeds or the pressures of the two liquids, so that the size and the injection speed of the generated liquid metal micro-droplets are precisely controlled, and the printed micro-droplets reach the order of a few micrometers or even hundreds of nanometers.
3. Because the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device drives fluid by utilizing mechanical force and does not have external power input driving equipment, the danger and the interference of electric leakage are avoided, various complex insulating measures such as coating processing and the like are reduced, and the energy consumption is reduced;
4. the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device adopts a heating temperature control mechanism and is matched with the cooling device 10 arranged on the 3D printer, so that the variety range of the 3D printer for the printed low-melting-point liquid metal is greatly widened, and the application range is wider.
The embodiments of the invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and are not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
Claims (7)
1. The liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device is characterized by comprising a liquid metal micro-channel and a main fluid micro-channel which are arranged in an intersecting manner, wherein the liquid metal micro-channel is communicated with a nozzle at the tail end, and liquid metal in the liquid metal micro-channel can be uniformly dispersed into a plurality of groups of liquid metal micro-drops under the action of the shearing force of continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid micro-channel;
the liquid drop generating device also comprises a heating temperature control mechanism, wherein the heating temperature control mechanism is used for controlling the temperature of the liquid metal in the liquid drop generating mechanism;
the heating temperature control mechanism comprises a thermoelectric sheet, an electric heating wire and a thermocouple, wherein the thermoelectric sheet is arranged at the outer side of the liquid drop generating mechanism, and the electric heating wire is arranged in the liquid drop generating mechanism so as to control the temperature of liquid metal in the liquid drop generating mechanism; the temperature measuring end of the thermocouple stretches into the liquid drop generating mechanism to measure the temperature of liquid metal in the liquid drop generating mechanism;
the liquid drop generating mechanism further comprises a liquid metal liquid storage tank, one end of the liquid metal liquid storage tank is communicated with the liquid metal micro-flow channel, the other end of the liquid metal liquid storage tank is connected with a pressure control mechanism through a liquid metal pressure inlet, and the pressure control mechanism is used for driving and controlling the flowing speed of the liquid metal in the liquid metal liquid storage tank to the liquid metal micro-flow channel; the liquid metal liquid storage tank is provided with a liquid metal injection opening;
the main fluid micro-channel is communicated with a main fluid sampling bottle through a main fluid sample inlet, and the main fluid sampling bottle is communicated with a pressure control mechanism so as to drive and control the flow speed of continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid micro-channel.
2. The liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device according to claim 1, wherein the number of the main fluid micro-channels is two, and the two main fluid micro-channels are respectively and oppositely communicated with two sides of the liquid metal micro-channel and are all intersected with the liquid metal micro-channel at a certain angle.
3. The liquid metal 3D printing head device of claim 1, wherein the pressure control mechanism is a pneumatic microfluidic sample injection system, a syringe pump, or a peristaltic pump.
4. A liquid metal 3D printing head device according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the solidification temperature of the liquid metal in the liquid metal micro-channels is less than or equal to 200 ℃.
5. The liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device according to claim 4, wherein the liquid metal is one or a mixture of a gallium simple substance metal, a gallium indium alloy, a gallium indium tin alloy, a bismuth indium tin alloy or a bismuth indium tin zinc alloy.
6. A liquid metal 3D printing head arrangement as defined in any one of claims 1-3 wherein the continuous phase main fluid in the main fluid microchannel comprises one or a mixture of several of glycerol solution, sodium hydroxide solution, or silicone oil solution.
7. A 3D printer, comprising a printing base, a cooling device and the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device according to any one of claims 1-6, wherein the printing base is correspondingly arranged at the lower part of the liquid metal 3D printing nozzle device, and the cooling device is arranged at the lower part of the printing base.
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| CN108642360B (en) * | 2018-05-15 | 2020-01-14 | 清华大学 | Preparation method of 3D printing flexible robot based on liquid metal |
| CN110899710B (en) * | 2018-09-14 | 2023-03-17 | 于志远 | Method and device for preparing metal or alloy spherical powder |
| CN110248520A (en) * | 2019-05-23 | 2019-09-17 | 西安航空职业技术学院 | A kind of radiator and its method for high power module |
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| CN111551294B (en) * | 2020-05-21 | 2021-03-30 | 浙江大学 | Flexible pressure sensor based on liquid metal photocuring printing technology |
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