CN107030285B

CN107030285B - Additive manufacturing device and method

Info

Publication number: CN107030285B
Application number: CN201710431262.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 郭超; 马旭龙
Original assignee: Tianjin Qingyan Zhishu Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Tianjin Qingyan Zhishu Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-06-08
Filing date: 2017-06-08
Publication date: 2020-02-11
Anticipated expiration: 2037-06-08
Also published as: CN107030285A

Abstract

The invention belongs to the field of additive manufacturing, and discloses an additive manufacturing device and method, wherein the device comprises a forming chamber, and the top of the forming chamber is provided with at least one ray generator; the forming cylinder is detachably positioned in the forming chamber, and a piston is arranged in the forming cylinder; the powder spreading platform is detachably arranged in the forming chamber, is matched with the forming cylinder for use and is arranged on two sides of the forming cylinder; the driving shaft is movably sealed and movably arranged on the forming chamber in a penetrating way and is detachably connected with the piston, and at least one driving shaft is arranged to be connected with and support the pistons of the forming cylinders with different sizes. Through setting up at least one ray generator to form the jar, spread powder platform detachable installation in the shaping room, can dismantle the piston of connecting the shaping jar through the drive shaft, when the part of equidimension is not made to needs, can directly change and form the jar and rather than supporting shop's powder platform, and then satisfy the manufacturing to the part of equidimension not, can have the printing ability of jumbo size part and the economic nature that the part of small-size printed concurrently.

Description

Additive manufacturing device and method

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of additive manufacturing, in particular to an additive manufacturing device and method.

Background

Additive manufacturing (3D printing) is a manufacturing technique for manufacturing three-dimensional solid parts by successively fusing more than one thin layer of material.

In the powder-laying type additive manufacturing technology, the size of a manufactured part is increased by arranging two or more ray beams and scanning the surface of a powder bed through the ray beams. Since the deflection scan range of a beam is limited, it cannot be manufactured if the size of the part to be manufactured exceeds the deflection scan range of the beam. Therefore, a plurality of ray bundles are adopted for scanning, and deflection scanning ranges of the ray bundles are spliced together to form a larger scanning range, so that parts with larger sizes can be manufactured.

However, the additive manufacturing device of the multi-ray beam has the following problems:

due to the large size of the forming cylinder of an additive manufacturing apparatus for multiple beams, the amount of powder material required to fill the entire forming cylinder is large. If the size of the part to be printed is large enough, the laid-up powder material is not wasted. However, if the size of the part to be printed is small, a large amount of powder material still needs to be laid due to the large size of the forming cylinder of the additive manufacturing device with the plurality of ray bundles, but the produced small parts are small, so that most of the powder material cannot be used, and the waste of the powder material is caused.

Therefore, how to design a multi-beam additive manufacturing device which combines the printing capability of large-size parts and the economical efficiency of small-size part printing is a problem to be solved at present.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide an additive manufacturing device and method so as to achieve the economic purpose of having both large-size part printing capacity and small-size part printing capacity.

In order to achieve the purpose, the invention adopts the following technical scheme:

an additive manufacturing apparatus comprising:

the top of the forming chamber is provided with at least one ray generator;

the forming cylinder is detachably positioned in the forming chamber, and a piston is arranged in the forming cylinder;

the powder spreading platform is detachably arranged in the forming chamber, is matched with the forming cylinder for use and is arranged on two sides of the forming cylinder;

and the driving shaft is movably sealed and movably arranged on the forming chamber in a penetrating way and is detachably connected with the piston, and at least one driving shaft is arranged to be connected with and support the pistons of the forming cylinders with different sizes.

Preferably, the maximum scan range of at least one of the ray generators covers at least the upper surface of the forming cylinder.

Preferably, when the driving shaft is provided in plural, the plural driving shafts move in synchronization.

Preferably, when the drive shaft is provided in plural, the drive shafts are arranged in the forming chamber at equal intervals.

Preferably, when the drive shaft is provided in plurality, one or more of the plurality of drive shafts are connected to the piston.

Preferably, when the plurality of the ray generators are provided, the plurality of the ray generators are arranged in an M × N arrangement, where M is the number of rows of the ray generator arrangement, and N is the number of columns of the ray generator arrangement.

Preferably, the ray generator emits a ray beam which is an electron beam or a laser beam, and when the ray beam is an electron beam, the inside of the forming chamber is a vacuum environment.

Preferably, the powder spreading device further comprises at least one hopper which is detachably arranged in the forming chamber and is arranged above the powder spreading platform.

Preferably, the powder forming device further comprises a scraper which is detachably arranged above the powder laying platform and is used for scraping the powder material on the powder laying platform into the forming cylinder.

Preferably, the forming cylinder, the powder laying platform, the hopper and the scraper are arranged in a set.

The invention also provides an additive manufacturing method, according to the size of the part to be manufactured, the forming cylinder matched with the size of the part and the powder spreading platform matched with the forming cylinder are detachably arranged in the forming chamber, and the forming cylinder is detachably connected to at least one driving shaft.

According to the invention, at least one ray generator is arranged, the forming cylinder and the powder spreading platform are detachably arranged in the forming chamber, and the piston of the forming cylinder is detachably connected through the driving shaft, so that when parts with different sizes need to be manufactured, the forming cylinder with different sizes and the powder spreading platform matched with the forming cylinder can be directly replaced, the manufacturing of the parts with different sizes is further met, and the printing capability of large-size parts and the printing economy of small-size parts can be realized.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an additive manufacturing apparatus having a forming cylinder of a certain size according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an additive manufacturing apparatus of the present invention having a forming cylinder of another size;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the scan ranges of two ray generators of an additive manufacturing apparatus of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic view of the scanning range of four ray generators of an additive manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

In the figure:

1. a forming chamber; 2. a forming cylinder; 3. a powder laying platform; 4. a drive shaft; 5. a ray generator; 6. a hopper; 7. a scraper; 21. a piston; 61. a powder delivery plate.

Detailed Description

The technical scheme of the invention is further explained by the specific implementation mode in combination with the attached drawings.

The invention provides an additive manufacturing device, which comprises a forming chamber 1, a forming cylinder 2, a powder laying platform 3, a driving shaft 4, a ray generator 5, a hopper 6 and a scraper 7, wherein as shown in figures 1 and 2:

the forming cylinder 2 is detachably arranged in the forming chamber 1, and a movable piston 21 is arranged in the forming cylinder 2 and used for placing the laid powder material, and particularly, the powder material can be paved in a space between the piston 21 and the cylinder body of the forming cylinder 2 and form a powder thin layer. In the present embodiment, the powder material may be titanium, a titanium alloy, a copper alloy, a titanium-aluminum intermetallic compound, a tantalum alloy, steel, or the like, and the particle diameter of the powder material is in a range of 45 μm to 105 μm.

In this embodiment, the forming cylinder 2 can be disassembled and replaced according to different sizes of parts, thereby avoiding the problems that large-sized parts cannot be manufactured and small-sized parts waste powder materials when a single-sized forming cylinder 2 is used.

The two sides of the forming cylinder 2 are hermetically connected with powder laying platforms 3, and the powder laying platforms 3 are detachably arranged in the forming chamber 1 and used for receiving powder materials and enabling the powder materials to be placed in the forming cylinder 2. The size of the powder laying platform 3 can be matched with that of the forming cylinder 2 so as to meet the requirement that the powder laying platform and the forming cylinder can be placed in the forming chamber 1.

Above the powder spreading platform 3 is detachably mounted the above-mentioned scraper 7, which scraper 7 has at least the function of moving horizontally, i.e. horizontally along the powder spreading platform 3, and is used to spread the powder material on the powder spreading platform 3 on the piston 21 of the forming cylinder 2 to form a thin layer of powder. In this embodiment, the scraper 7 can scrape powder in two directions, that is, can scrape powder from left to right, and can scrape powder from right to left.

Hopper 6 is provided with at least one, and its detachable installation just is located the top of shop's powder platform 3 in the forming chamber 1, in this embodiment, sets up hopper 6 into two, sets up respectively in the top of shop's powder platform 3 both sides, has put powder material in hopper 6, and the below opening of hopper 6 sets up, and is provided with powder conveying board 61, carries the powder material in it to shop's powder platform 3 on through powder conveying board 61. In this embodiment, preferably, the two hoppers 6 are symmetrically arranged.

In this embodiment, because above-mentioned shaping jar 2, shop's powder platform 3, hopper 6 and scraper 7 are detachable setting in shaping room 1, consequently when carrying out the part manufacture of unidimensional not, can be alone with shaping jar 2 and rather than supporting shop's powder platform 3 change for the shaping jar 2 and shop's powder platform 3 that accord with the part size, also can be with above-mentioned shaping jar 2, shop's powder platform 3, hopper 6 and scraper 7 are as a set of device, change simultaneously for the device with part size assorted, change through a whole set of device, its change speed is faster, and supporting effect is better, can further increase material increase manufacturing efficiency.

In this embodiment, the driving shaft 4 is inserted into the lower portion of the forming chamber 1 in a dynamic seal manner, and is detachably connected to the piston 21 of the forming cylinder 2. The driving shaft 4 can support and move the piston 21 up and down with respect to the cylinder body of the forming cylinder 2, so that the powder can be laid in a plurality of layers. When it is necessary to replace the forming cylinder 2 of a different size, the piston 21 of the forming cylinder 2 can be removed from the drive shaft 4, and then the forming cylinder 2 can be replaced by removing the forming cylinder 2 from the forming chamber 1.

In this embodiment, the number of the driving shaft 4 may be one, and the driving shaft 4 is detachably connected to the piston 21. The number of the drive shafts 4 may be plural, and in the case of plural, one piston 21 connected to the forming cylinder 2 (suitable for a case where the size of the forming cylinder 2 is small) or plural pistons 21 each connected to the forming cylinder 2 (suitable for a case where the size of the forming cylinder 2 is large) may be sufficient as long as the pistons 21 of the forming cylinder 2 can be smoothly supported and driven. It should be noted that, when the number of the driving shafts 4 is multiple, the driving shafts 4 operate synchronously, so that when the driving shafts 4 are all connected to the piston 21, the levelness of the piston 21 can be ensured to be unchanged, and then a powder thin layer meeting the requirement can be laid.

Further, when the driving shaft 4 is provided in plural, the plural driving shafts 4 are disposed through the forming chamber 1 at equal intervals to achieve smooth support and driving of the piston 21, and further to maintain the levelness of the piston 21 constant.

In this embodiment, at least one of the ray generators 5 is disposed on the top of the forming chamber 1, and is used for emitting ray beams and scanning the powder thin layer on the forming cylinder 2 by the ray beams. The beam may be an electron beam or a laser beam, and when the beam is an electron beam, the inside of the forming chamber 1 is a vacuum environment. In the embodiment, the electron beam is preferably selected, wherein the electron acceleration voltage is 45-60kV, and the maximum power is more than 3 kW. The forming chamber 1 is connected to a vacuum obtaining device (e.g., a vacuum pump, etc.) so that the air pressure inside the forming chamber 1 meets the requirements. The forming chamber 1 is also provided with an auxiliary gas charging port for adjusting the gas pressure in the forming chamber 1 to a set value by charging an auxiliary gas into the forming chamber 1. The auxiliary gas may be an inert gas or nitrogen to avoid physical or chemical reaction with the powder material.

The maximum scanning range of the at least one ray generator 5 covers at least the upper surface of the forming cylinder 2 for the purpose of fully scanning the thin layer of powder. In this embodiment, one of the ray generators 5 may be provided, but it is necessary to ensure that it can completely scan the thin layer of powder, that is, the forming cylinder 2 has a relatively small size. When the forming cylinder 2 is large in size and a single ray generator 5 is not enough to completely scan the powder thin layer, a plurality of ray generators 5 are required to act together, and the scanning ranges of the plurality of ray generators 5 are combined to form a larger scanning range, so that the powder thin layer on the forming cylinder 2 with the large size can be scanned.

In this embodiment, when the plurality of the ray generators 5 are provided, the plurality of the ray generators 5 are arranged in an M × N arrangement, where M is the number of rows in which the ray generators 5 are arranged, and N is the number of columns in which the ray generators 5 are arranged. Referring to fig. 3, taking two radiation generators 5 as an example, the scanning range of the radiation beam emitted by the radiation generator 5 is square (not limited to square), and the two radiation generators 5 are arranged in a row, and the scanning ranges of the two radiation generators partially overlap, and the overlapping area is a stripe. The size of the forming cylinder 2 is not larger than the maximum size after the scanning ranges of the forming cylinder and the forming cylinder are overlapped. In this case, when one of the ray generators 5 is able to satisfy the complete scanning of the thin layer of powder on the forming cylinder 2, one of the ray generators 5 may not be activated, i.e. only one ray generator 5 is used.

Referring to fig. 4, when the forming cylinder 2 needs a plurality of radiation generators 5 when the size is large, taking four radiation generators 5 as an example, the four radiation generators 5 are arranged in a 2 × 2 array, the maximum scanning range of the overlapped scanning ranges of the radiation beams emitted by the four radiation generators 5 is as shown in fig. 4, and the size of the forming cylinder 2 is not larger than the maximum scanning range.

Through the arrangement, the thin powder layer on the forming cylinder 2 can be completely scanned, and further forming failure caused by partial non-scanning can be avoided.

In this embodiment, when additive manufacturing is performed, a model of a manufactured three-dimensional part is first stored in a computer, the model is layered in the computer, and processing information for each layer is obtained. The manufacturing of the three-dimensional part is carried out in the forming chamber 1, the powder conveying plate 61 conveys the powder material in the hopper 6 to the powder laying platform 3, the scraper 7 lays the powder material above the piston 21 of the forming cylinder 2 and forms a powder thin layer, and at least one ray generator 5 emits ray beams to scan and process the powder thin layer; when the first layer is finished, the powder conveying plate 61 conveys the powder material in the hopper 6 to the powder laying platform 3 again, the scraper 7 lays the powder material above the piston 21 of the forming cylinder 2 and forms a powder thin layer, the at least one ray generator 5 emits ray beams, the scanning processing … … is carried out on the powder thin layer in such a circulating mode, and the three-dimensional part is constructed by continuously processing more than two powder thin layers.

When parts with different sizes need to be manufactured, the forming cylinders 2 with different sizes can be replaced, the forming cylinders 2 with different sizes and the powder spreading platform 3 matched with the forming cylinders can be directly replaced, and the whole forming cylinder 2, the powder spreading platform 3, the hopper 6 and the scraper 7 can be directly replaced, so that the manufacturing of the parts with different sizes is met, and the printing capability of the parts with the large sizes and the printing economy of the parts with the small sizes can be realized.

The invention also provides an additive manufacturing method, which is realized by the additive manufacturing device, and specifically, the method comprises the following steps: according to the size of the part to be manufactured, a forming cylinder matched with the size of the part and a powder spreading platform matched with the forming cylinder are detachably arranged in the forming chamber, and the forming cylinder is detachably connected to at least one driving shaft. Subsequently, the manufacturing of the part is performed according to the additive manufacturing apparatus, and a specific manufacturing process is already described in the additive manufacturing apparatus and is not described in detail.

According to the additive manufacturing method, different forming cylinders and powder laying platforms can be replaced according to different part sizes, or a whole set of forming cylinder, powder laying platform, hopper and scraper can be replaced, so that large-size parts can be printed, and waste of powder materials is reduced or even avoided when small-size parts are printed.

It should be understood that the above-described embodiments of the present invention are merely examples for clearly illustrating the present invention, and are not intended to limit the embodiments of the present invention. Other variations and modifications will be apparent to persons skilled in the art in light of the above description. And are neither required nor exhaustive of all embodiments. Any modification, equivalent replacement, and improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. An additive manufacturing apparatus, comprising:

a forming chamber (1) provided with at least one ray generator (5) at the top;

a forming cylinder (2) which is detachably located in the forming chamber (1) and in which a piston (21) is provided;

the powder spreading platform (3) is detachably arranged in the forming chamber (1), is matched with the forming cylinder (2) for use and is arranged on two sides of the forming cylinder (2);

the driving shaft (4) is movably sealed and movably arranged on the forming chamber (1) in a penetrating mode and is detachably connected with the piston (21), and at least two pistons (21) for connecting and supporting forming cylinders (2) with different sizes are arranged on the driving shaft (4);

the number of the ray generators (5) is multiple, the ray generators (5) are arranged in an M multiplied by N mode, wherein M is the number of the arranged rows of the ray generators (5), N is the number of the arranged columns of the ray generators (5), and the maximum scanning range of the ray generators (5) at least covers the upper surface of the forming cylinder (2);

when one of the ray generators (5) is satisfied with a complete scan of the thin layer of powder on the forming cylinder (2), one or more of the ray generators (5) are selectively activated.

2. Additive manufacturing device according to claim 1, wherein when the drive shaft (4) is provided in plurality, the plurality of drive shafts (4) move synchronously.

3. Additive manufacturing device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein when the drive shaft (4) is provided in plurality, the drive shaft (4) is provided on the forming chamber (1) at equal intervals.

4. Additive manufacturing device according to claim 3, wherein when the drive shaft (4) is provided in plurality, one or more of the plurality of drive shafts (4) is connected to the piston (21).

5. Additive manufacturing device according to claim 1, further comprising at least one hopper (6), said hopper (6) being removably mounted inside the forming chamber (1) and placed above the powder laying platform (3).

6. Additive manufacturing device according to claim 5, further comprising a scraper (7), the scraper (7) being detachably mounted above the powder spreading platform (3) for scraping powder material on the powder spreading platform (3) into the forming cylinder (2).

7. Additive manufacturing device according to claim 6, wherein the forming cylinder (2), the dusting platform (3), the hopper (6) and the scraper (7) are arranged in sets.