CN112123763A

CN112123763A - Printing head protection device, printing head cleaning method and 3D printer

Info

Publication number: CN112123763A
Application number: CN202011047627.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 马泽飞; 马睿; 王军伟; 闫涛; 马立强
Original assignee: Kocel Intelligent Foundry Industry Innovation Center Co Ltd
Current assignee: Kocel Intelligent Foundry Industry Innovation Center Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-09-30
Filing date: 2020-09-30
Publication date: 2020-12-25

Abstract

The invention relates to a printing head protection device, a printing head cleaning method and a 3D printer. The printing head cleaning method adopts the printing head protection device for cleaning, and the 3D printer comprises the printing head protection device. The print head protection device comprises: the protection mechanism comprises a protection frame and a scrubbing piece rotatably arranged in the protection frame; the jacking mechanism is arranged on the protective frame and used for jacking the protective frame to move along the vertical direction; and the spraying mechanism is arranged in the protective frame and is used for cleaning the scrubbing piece. The printing head protection device, the printing head cleaning method and the 3D printer can avoid the problems of secondary pollution and friction of the printing head, so that the service life of the printing head can be greatly prolonged, and meanwhile, the production cost can be reduced.

Description

Printing head protection device, printing head cleaning method and 3D printer

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of additive manufacturing, in particular to a printing head protection device, a printing head cleaning method and a 3D printer.

Background

The 3DP forming method is a typical powder (particle) material 3D printing technology, and the specific process of the method is that a layer of powder is uniformly paved on a platform, a printing head scans and sprays a liquid material in a specific area, so that the powder at the spraying part is bonded together, the platform descends a certain layer thickness distance at the moment, and the steps are repeated until the powder paving and printing work of all layers is completed. After the 3DP printer works, the 3DP printer needs to be static for a period of time to wait for the workpiece to be completely solidified and then can be taken out of the working box, or the printing is not needed for a period of time after the printing is finished, at the moment, the printing head needs to return to the protection device to protect the printing head, the printing head is prevented from being in the air and not jetting ink for a long time, dust in the air can enter the jet orifice of the printing head, or liquid in the jet orifice of the printing head can be solidified and dried, the jet orifice can be seriously blocked in the two conditions, the ink jetting state of the printing head is influenced, and therefore the quality of the printed workpiece is.

The protection device of the printing head which is currently used is specially designed on equipment for the printing head exposed to the air, and the protection device is fixed on the equipment, and has the following three disadvantages: the protection device is exposed to air and is easy to receive dust, impurities and the like in the air. At this time, the protection device has little protection effect on the printing head, and is easy to cause secondary pollution to the blockage of the spray hole. Secondly, the sponge on the protection station needs to be cleaned manually within a certain time, and because the temperature changes at any time, the evaporation speed of the cleaning agent on the protection sponge is different, sometimes the cleaning agent on the sponge is possibly prevented from being evaporated, so that the protection effect is not achieved, and the manual workload is increased. And the printing head usually rubs with the protective sponge when returning to the protective device, and if large granular substances such as impurities exist on the protective sponge, the printing head is scraped, so that the service life of the printing head is influenced.

Disclosure of Invention

Therefore, it is necessary to provide a printing head protection device, a printing head cleaning method and a 3D printer, which can avoid the problems of secondary pollution and friction of a printing head, thereby greatly prolonging the service life of the printing head and reducing the production cost, in order to solve the problems that the printing head protection device in the prior art has poor protection effect, needs to be manually cleaned regularly and is easy to wear the printing head.

A printhead protection device, the printhead protection device comprising: the protection mechanism comprises a protection frame and a scrubbing piece rotatably arranged in the protection frame; the jacking mechanism is arranged on the protective frame and used for jacking the protective frame to move along the vertical direction; and the spraying mechanism is arranged in the protective frame and is used for cleaning the scrubbing piece.

In one embodiment, the protection mechanism comprises a driving part, the driving part is mounted on the protection frame, one end of the scrubbing part is connected with the rotating shaft of the driving part, and one end of the scrubbing part, which is far away from the driving part, is mounted on the protection frame through the connecting rotating shaft.

In one embodiment, the scrubbing element comprises a mounting plate and a cleaning block, the two ends of the mounting plate are respectively connected with the rotating shaft of the driving element and the connecting rotating shaft, and the cleaning block is arranged on the surface of the mounting plate.

In one embodiment, the cleaning block is disposed on the mounting plate by a pressure plate.

In one embodiment, the protection mechanism further comprises an encoder, and the encoder is connected with the connecting rotating shaft.

In one embodiment, the spraying mechanism comprises a connecting pipe and a plurality of sprayers, the connecting pipe is arranged on the side edge of the mounting plate, and the sprayers are arranged on the connecting pipe in a spaced communication mode.

In one embodiment, the jacking mechanism includes a supporting seat and a jacking assembly, the supporting seat is disposed on the protection frame, and the jacking assembly is mounted on the supporting seat.

In one embodiment, the bottom of the protective frame is provided with a waste liquid box.

A method for cleaning a printing head by using the printing head protection device of any one of the above embodiments, comprising the following steps: starting a spraying mechanism to clean the scrubbing part; rotating the scrubbing element out of the protective frame; moving the print head over the wiper; starting the jacking mechanism until the scrubbing piece contacts the printing head, and cleaning the printing head; starting the jacking mechanism to control the scrubbing piece to be far away from the printing head; the scrubbing piece is turned into the protective frame and the spraying mechanism is started to clean.

A 3D printer, comprising the print head protection device of any of the above embodiments.

According to the printing head protection device, the printing head cleaning method and the 3D printer, the wiping piece is rotatably arranged in the protection frame of the printing head protection device, and the printing head is rotated out of the protection frame when the printing head needs to be cleaned, so that the printing head is cleaned; in addition, in the process, the jacking mechanism is arranged on the protective frame, and the protective frame is controlled to move along the vertical direction, so that the scrubbing piece is controlled to move up and down along the vertical direction according to the cleaning requirement to avoid friction of the scrubbing piece on the printing head in a position fixing state.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a printhead protection device according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a portion of a printhead protection device according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a portion of another embodiment of a printhead protection device;

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of another perspective view of the printhead protection device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for cleaning a printhead according to an embodiment.

Detailed Description

To facilitate an understanding of the invention, the invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown in the drawings. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete.

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "disposed on" another element, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elements may also be present. When an element is referred to as being "connected" to another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or intervening elements may also be present. As used herein, the terms "vertical," "horizontal," "left," "right," "top," "bottom," "top," and the like are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent the only embodiments.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The terminology used herein in the description of the invention is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

In one embodiment, a printhead protection device, the printhead protection device comprising: the protection mechanism comprises a protection frame and a scrubbing piece rotatably arranged in the protection frame; the spraying mechanism is arranged in the protective frame and used for cleaning the scrubbing piece; the jacking mechanism is arranged on the protective frame and used for jacking the protective frame to move along the vertical direction.

In one embodiment, a method for cleaning a print head by using the print head protection device includes the following steps: starting the spraying mechanism to clean the scrubbing piece, and rotating the scrubbing piece out of the protective frame; moving the print head over the wiper; starting the jacking mechanism until the scrubbing piece contacts the printing head; cleaning the printing head; starting the jacking mechanism to control the scrubbing piece to be far away from the printing head; the scrubbing piece is turned into the protective frame and the spraying mechanism is started to clean.

In an embodiment, a 3D printer includes the printhead protection device.

The printhead protection device is described below in conjunction with specific embodiments to further understand the concepts of the printhead protection device. Referring to fig. 1 and 2, a printhead protection device 10 includes: a guard mechanism 100 comprising a guard frame 110 and a scrubbing element 120 rotatably mounted within the guard frame; a spray mechanism 200 mounted within the protective frame for cleaning the scrubbing elements 120; and the jacking mechanism 300 is installed on the protective frame 110 and used for jacking the protective frame to move along the vertical direction. Therefore, the wiping piece 120 is controlled to rotate along the protective frame 110, so that secondary pollution of the wiping piece can be avoided, the protective frame is controlled to move along the vertical direction through the jacking mechanism 300, the wiping piece is close to or far away from the printing head as required, friction on the printing head is avoided, and the service life of the printing head is favorably protected.

Specifically, the protection frame 110 has baffles around it, wherein two opposite baffles along the length direction have rotating holes, and the scrubbing element 120 is rotatably mounted in the protection frame 110 through a connecting rotating shaft penetrating the rotating holes. In one embodiment, the protection mechanism includes a driving member 130, the driving member is mounted on the protection frame 110, one end of the scrubbing member 120 is connected to the rotating shaft of the driving member 130, and one end of the scrubbing member 120 away from the driving member 130 is mounted on the protection frame through the connecting rotating shaft. Alternatively, the driving member 130 includes a motor or a cylinder. Specifically, the rotating shaft of the motor extends into the protective frame 110 through a rotating hole formed in a side baffle plate and is connected with one end of the scrubbing piece, and the other end of the scrubbing piece is connected with the connecting rotating shaft penetrating through the rotating hole formed in the baffle plate. Thus, the driving member 130 is arranged to control the rotation of the driving scrubbing member 120 in the protection frame 110.

Referring to fig. 3 and 4, in one embodiment, the scrubbing element 120 includes a mounting plate 121 and a cleaning block 122, two ends of the mounting plate 121 are respectively connected to the rotating shaft of the driving element 130 and the connecting rotating shaft, and the cleaning block 122 is disposed on the surface of the mounting plate 121. Optionally, the cleaning block 122 comprises a cleaning sponge or cleaning wipe. That is, the mounting plate 121 rotates under the driving action of the driving member 130, so as to drive the cleaning block 122 disposed on the mounting plate 121 to rotate, when the printing head needs to be cleaned, the side of the mounting plate 121 where the cleaning block 122 is disposed is rotated out of the protection frame 110, otherwise, the side is rotated into the protection frame 110, so that the cleaning block is prevented from being secondarily polluted in the printing process. In one embodiment, the cleaning block 122 is disposed on the mounting plate 121 by a pressing plate 123. The pressing plate is arranged to be beneficial to stably arranging the cleaning block 122 on the mounting plate 121, so that the mounting plate 121 is prevented from falling off in the rotating process. Further, a driving plate 124 is arranged on the connecting rotating shaft, and the driving plate 124 is connected with the mounting plate 121. To ensure that the scrubbing elements 120 are protected from the environment within the guard frame 110, the guard frame is preferably provided with a sealing ring at its periphery, which is in movable abutment with the mounting plate 121. This facilitates the swab being rotated into the guard frame 110 such that the cavity of the guard frame forms a relatively sealed environment.

In one embodiment, the spraying mechanism 200 includes a connecting pipe 210 and a plurality of sprayers 220, the connecting pipe 210 is disposed at a side of the mounting plate 121, and the sprayers 220 are disposed on the connecting pipe 210 in a spaced-apart communication manner. Specifically, the connection pipe 210 is provided with a joint, and the cleaning liquid is input into the connection pipe 210 through the pump body through the joint. Optionally, the connection pipe 210 is a hose. The hose arrangement facilitates installation. Specifically, the connection pipe 210 is disposed at one side of the mounting plate 121. The provision of a plurality of sprayers facilitates the overall cleaning of the scrubbing element. Therefore, when the ink spraying device is used for spraying, dust and impurities stained on the scrubbing piece can be cleaned, residual ink on the scrubbing piece can be cleaned, and the optimal state of the scrubbing piece when the printing head is cleaned is guaranteed.

In one embodiment, the jacking mechanism 300 includes a supporting base 310 and a jacking assembly 320, the supporting base 310 is disposed on the protection frame 110, and the jacking assembly 320 is mounted on the supporting base 310. Optionally, the jacking assembly 320 is a jacking cylinder. Further, the four corners of the protection frame 110 are respectively provided with one of the jacking assemblies 320. This is favorable to stabilizing jacking control protective frame 110 and going up and down along vertical direction to the piece is gone up and down along vertical direction to overall control cleans to control its distance from beating printer head as required according to cleaning, in order to avoid contacting when not cleaning the operation and beat printer head and cause and to beat printer head wearing and tearing.

In one embodiment, the bottom of the protection frame 110 is provided with a waste liquid box 400. Specifically, waste fluid box 400 is sealingly connected to protective frame 110, which prevents environmental contaminants from entering the protective frame through the waste fluid sump, thereby affecting the swab. The waste from the spray scrubbers can be collected in the waste tank by providing waste tank 400.

In one embodiment, the protection mechanism 100 further includes an encoder 140, and the encoder 140 is connected to the connecting shaft. That is, the encoder 140 is rotatably coupled to the driving member 130. Therefore, the driving piece and the encoder 140 cooperatively drive the rotating scrubbing piece and the spraying mechanism to spray the scrubbing piece, unmanned operation is realized, the manual workload is reduced, and cost reduction and efficiency improvement are realized.

Referring to fig. 5, in an embodiment, a method for cleaning a print head by using the print head protection device includes the following steps:

s110, starting a spraying mechanism to clean the scrubbing piece;

namely, the joint in the spraying mechanism is communicated, and the sprayer is started to realize the spraying and washing of the cleaning block of the scrubbing piece.

S120, rotating the scrubbing piece out of the protective frame;

by starting the driving part, the mounting plate of the scrubbing part is driven by the driving part to rotate, so that the cleaning blocks mounted on the mounting plate are driven to face the outside of the protective frame.

S130, moving the printing head to the upper part of the scrubbing piece;

the print head to be cleaned is moved to the protective frame and placed over the cleaning block of the scrubbing member in preparation for beginning scrubbing ink and other dirt from the print head.

S140, starting the jacking mechanism until the scrubbing piece contacts the printing head and cleaning the printing head;

when the printing head is arranged above the cleaning block, the jacking assembly 320 is started to control the jacking assembly 320 to jack up, so that the protective frame moves towards the printing head to contact the printing head, and the printing head or the scrubbing piece is controlled to move left and right or back and forth, so that the printing head can be scrubbed.

S150, starting the jacking mechanism to control the scrubbing piece to be far away from the printing head;

when the wiping is finished, the cylinder of the jacking assembly 320 is controlled to retract, so that the cleaning block of the wiping piece is separated from the printing head, and the printing head is separated from the position of the printing head protection device.

And S160, the scrubbing piece is transferred into the protective frame and the spraying mechanism is started to clean.

The drive member and encoder begin to cooperate to stop rotation of the scrubbing element to a corresponding position within the protective frame. And then correspondingly starting the spraying mechanism again to clean the cleaning block.

Thus, the above steps are circularly executed, so that the circular cleaning of the scrubbing piece of the printing head protection device and the safe scrubbing of the printing head can be realized. In the process, the cleaning of the cleaning block can avoid secondary pollution in the environment; in addition, in the process, the jacking mechanism is arranged on the protective frame, and the protective frame is controlled to move along the vertical direction, so that the scrubbing piece is controlled to move up and down along the vertical direction according to the cleaning requirement to avoid friction of the scrubbing piece on the printing head in a position fixing state.

A 3D printer comprising the printhead protection device of any one of the above embodiments. Specifically, the print head protection device is mounted on the working frame of the 3D printer.

Above-mentioned printer beats printer head protection device through setting up and has greatly improved the printer of beating printer head life, can ensure simultaneously and print quality.

The technical features of the embodiments described above may be arbitrarily combined, and for the sake of brevity, all possible combinations of the technical features in the embodiments described above are not described, but should be considered as being within the scope of the present specification as long as there is no contradiction between the combinations of the technical features.

The above-mentioned embodiments only express several embodiments of the present invention, and the description thereof is more specific and detailed, but not construed as limiting the scope of the invention. It should be noted that, for a person skilled in the art, several variations and modifications can be made without departing from the inventive concept, which falls within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present patent shall be subject to the appended claims.

Claims

1. A printhead protection device, comprising:

the protection mechanism comprises a protection frame and a scrubbing piece rotatably arranged in the protection frame;

the jacking mechanism is arranged on the protective frame and used for jacking the protective frame to move along the vertical direction;

and the spraying mechanism is arranged in the protective frame and is used for cleaning the scrubbing piece.

2. The printhead protection device of claim 1, wherein the protection mechanism comprises a driving member, the driving member is mounted on the protection frame, one end of the scrubbing member is connected to the rotating shaft of the driving member, and the end of the scrubbing member away from the driving member is mounted on the protection frame through the connecting rotating shaft.

3. The printhead protection device of claim 2, wherein the scrubbing element comprises a mounting plate and a cleaning block, the mounting plate is connected to the driving element and the connecting shaft at two ends, respectively, and the cleaning block is disposed on the surface of the mounting plate.

4. The printhead protection device of claim 3, wherein the cleaning block is disposed on the mounting plate by a platen.

5. The printhead protection device of claim 2, wherein the protection mechanism further comprises an encoder coupled to the connecting shaft.

6. The printhead protection device of claim 3, wherein the spray mechanism comprises a connecting pipe and a plurality of sprayers, the connecting pipe is arranged on the side of the mounting plate, and the sprayers are arranged on the connecting pipe in a spaced communication mode.

7. The printhead protection device of claim 1, wherein the lift mechanism comprises a support base and a lift assembly, the support base is disposed on the protective frame, and the lift assembly is mounted on the support base.

8. The printhead protection device of claim 1, wherein a bottom of the protection frame is provided with a waste liquid box.

9. A print head cleaning method for cleaning a print head using the print head protecting apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, comprising the steps of:

starting a spraying mechanism to clean the scrubbing part;

rotating the scrubbing element out of the protective frame;

moving the print head over the wiper;

starting the jacking mechanism until the scrubbing piece contacts the printing head;

cleaning the printing head;

starting the jacking mechanism to control the scrubbing piece to be far away from the printing head;

the scrubbing piece is turned into the protective frame and the spraying mechanism is started to clean.

10. A 3D printer comprising a print head protection device according to any one of claims 1 to 9.