CN115489109A

CN115489109A - Calibration method for 3D printer and 3D printer

Info

Publication number: CN115489109A
Application number: CN202110679162.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈子寒
Original assignee: Shanghai Outline Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Outline Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-06-18
Filing date: 2021-06-18
Publication date: 2022-12-20

Abstract

A calibration method for a 3D printer and the 3D printer are provided. The calibration method comprises the following steps: contacting the second fluid extrusion head with the position sensor assembly along the first direction; recording a first coordinate of the extruder; causing a second fluid extrusion head to contact the position sensor assembly along a second direction; recording a second coordinate of the extruder; contacting a first fluid extrusion head with a position sensor assembly along a first direction; recording a third coordinate of the extruder; contacting the first fluid extrusion head with the position sensor assembly along the second direction; recording a fourth coordinate of the extruder; and determining a relative position of the first fluid extrusion head with respect to the second fluid extrusion head based on the first, second, third, and fourth coordinates.

Description

Calibration method for 3D printer and 3D printer

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of 3D printing technologies, and in particular, to a calibration method for a 3D printer, a computer-readable storage medium, and a computer program product.

Background

The 3D printer, also known as a three-dimensional printer or a stereo printer, is a process equipment for rapid prototyping, and is usually realized by printing a material by using a digital technology. 3D printers are often used to manufacture models or parts in the fields of mold manufacturing, industrial design, and the like. In recent years, 3D printing technology has had a promising application in jewelry, footwear, industrial design, construction, engineering and construction (AEC), automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, firearms, and other fields.

In the existing 3D printing technology, when printing an object to be printed including a suspended portion, an additional supporting portion needs to be printed first, and then the 3D object needs to be printed on the supporting portion. And finally, after the object to be printed is molded, removing the additional supporting part from the object to be printed. At present, a mainstream method for facilitating the removal of the supporting part on the object to be printed is to additionally coat ink which is convenient to separate from the object to be printed on the supporting part after the supporting part is printed. This requires two extrusion heads for outputting the printing material and the ink to be provided separately on the 3D printer.

The approaches described in this section are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section. Similarly, the problems mentioned in this section should not be considered as having been acknowledged in any prior art, unless otherwise indicated.

Disclosure of Invention

According to one aspect of the disclosure, a calibration method for a 3D printer is provided. The 3D printer includes: the apparatus includes an extruder, a first fluid extrusion head disposed on the extruder, a second fluid extrusion head disposed on the extruder, and a position sensor assembly disposed on a predetermined plane defined by a first direction and a second direction that intersect each other. The method comprises the following steps: moving the extruder in a first direction to drive the second fluid extrusion head to contact the position sensor assembly in the first direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly; recording a position of the extruder in a first direction as first coordinates in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly indicating that the position sensor assembly is triggered; moving the extruder in a second direction to drive a second fluid extrusion head to contact the position sensor assembly in the second direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly; recording the position of the extruder in a second direction as a second coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly indicating that the position sensor assembly is triggered; moving the extruder along a first direction to drive the first fluid extrusion head to contact the position sensor assembly along the first direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly; recording a position of the extruder in the first direction as a third coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly indicating that the position sensor assembly is triggered; moving the extruder in a second direction to drive the first fluid extrusion head to contact the position sensor assembly in the second direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly; recording the position of the extruder in the second direction as a fourth coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly indicating that the position sensor assembly is triggered; and determining a relative position of the first fluid extrusion head with respect to the second fluid extrusion head based on the first, second, third, and fourth coordinates.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a method of 3D printing, including: executing the calibration method for the 3D printer; and when the first fluid is applied to the printing object printed by the second fluid extrusion head by the first fluid extrusion head, correcting the motion track of the extruder according to the relative position of the first fluid extrusion head relative to the second fluid extrusion head.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a 3D printer including: an extruder; a first fluid extrusion head disposed on the extruder configured to output a first fluid; a second fluid extrusion head disposed on the extruder configured to output a second fluid; a position sensor assembly disposed on a preset plane defined by a first direction and a second direction crossing each other; and a processor configured to implement the above method when executing the instructions.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the above-described method.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a computer program product comprising a computer program, wherein the computer program when executed by a processor implements the steps of the above method.

Drawings

In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to the same or similar parts or elements throughout the several views unless otherwise specified. The figures are not necessarily to scale. It is appreciated that these drawings depict only some embodiments in accordance with the disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic structural diagram of a 3D printer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic partial block diagram of an extruder portion of a 3D printer according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic structural diagram of a position sensor assembly of a 3D printer according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of a calibration method for a 3D printer according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of a method of acquiring first coordinates in the calibration method of FIG. 4 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a method of acquiring second coordinates in the calibration method of FIG. 4 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a schematic diagram of a first preset position to a fourth preset position selection according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 illustrates a flow chart of a 3D printing method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

In the following, only certain exemplary embodiments are briefly described. As those skilled in the art can appreciate, the described embodiments can be modified in various different ways, without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.

In practice, the ink extrusion head is usually a consumable material, meaning that the extrusion head needs to be replaced frequently, and therefore the ink extrusion head is generally detachably provided on the 3D printer. The inventors found that this brings about the following problems: an error in the mounting position may exist each time the ink extrusion head is mounted, resulting in a difference in the actual mounting position of the ink extrusion head with respect to its design value, and thus causing the ink extrusion head to be unable to apply ink at the correct target position during printing, resulting in a deterioration in subsequent separation effect.

In view of this, the disclosed embodiments provide a 3D printer and a calibration method for a 3D printer, which may alleviate, alleviate or even eliminate the above-mentioned problems.

A 3D printer of an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 1 to 3. Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic structural view of a 3D printer 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, fig. 2 illustrates a partial schematic structural view of an extruder 140 portion of the 3D printer 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and fig. 3 illustrates a schematic structural view of a position sensor assembly 130 of the 3D printer 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 1, the 3D printer 100 includes: print platform 133 (not shown in fig. 1), extruder 140, first fluid extrusion head 110, second fluid extrusion head 120, position sensor assembly 130, first guide bar 170, second guide bar 180, a drive mechanism, and processor 190. The driving mechanism is used for driving the extruder 140 to move. In this embodiment, the drive mechanism includes: a first motor 150 and a second motor 160. The printing platform 133 is disposed at the bottom of the 3D printer 100, and is used for supporting an object to be printed, and an upper surface of the printing platform is a printing plane. The space above the printing platform 133 is a printing space for printing an object to be printed. The extruders 140 may move within the printing space described above to control the respective extrusion heads to apply fluid for printing toward the printing plane. The first guide bar 170 and the second guide bar 180 are two guide bars intersecting with each other, the first guide bar 170 extends along a first direction, and the second guide bar 180 extends along a second direction. The extruder 140 is provided on the two guide rods and can move bidirectionally on the first guide rod 170 and the second guide rod 180, respectively. The printing plane may be parallel to both the first guide bar 170 and the second guide bar 180, that is, the printing plane may be defined by a first direction and a second direction crossing each other. The first motor 150 is, for example, provided on the first guide bar 170 and connected to the extruder 140, for driving the extruder 140 to reciprocate in the first direction in which the first guide bar 170 is located. The second motor 160 is, for example, disposed on the second guide bar 180 and connected to the extruder 140, for driving the extruder 140 to reciprocate in the second direction in which the second guide bar 180 is located. In this embodiment, the first direction and the second direction may be perpendicular to each other. For convenience of description, the first direction is defined as a negative direction of the X direction, and the second direction is defined as a negative direction of the Y direction. The extruder 140 may be driven via a first motor 150 and a second motor 160 to move in the X-Y plane of the printing space. The processor 190 can be electrically connected to the first motor 150 and the second motor 160, respectively, and calculate the position of the extruder 140 on the X-Y plane of the printing space at a certain time according to the specific motion process of the extruder 140.

As shown in fig. 2, the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are both provided on an extruder 140. The first fluid extrusion head 110 is generally a consumable material and needs to be replaced frequently, so the first fluid extrusion head 110 is detachably disposed on the extruder 140 to facilitate replacement. As shown in fig. 2, the first fluid extrusion head 110 is disposed facing downward (toward the printing platform 133) for applying the first fluid to an object to be printed. Illustratively, the first fluid extrusion head 110 may be mounted to the extruder 140 by snap-fitting. The second fluid extrusion head 120 is a non-consumable material that is fixedly disposed on the extruder 140 and is also disposed downward (toward the printing platform 133) for applying a second fluid to an object to be printed. There is a certain space between the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 to prevent interference between the two extrusion heads.

The first fluid and the second fluid may be different fluids for 3D printing. In this embodiment, the first fluid may be a release material and the second fluid may be a printing material. The printing material is the build material that ultimately forms the object to be printed (or target object). A release material may be applied between the two portions of printed material for urging the two portions apart. Examples of printing materials include, but are not limited to: liquid photosensitive resin, powdered nylon material, etc. The release material may for example be an ink.

Although the first fluid is a release material and the second fluid is a printing material in the present embodiment, it is understood that in some other embodiments of the present invention, the first fluid may be a printing material, the second fluid may be a release material, or the first fluid and the second fluid may be printing materials of different materials. In addition, in this embodiment, first fluid extrusion head 110 is removably mounted on the extruder and second fluid extrusion head 120 is fixedly mounted on the extruder, but it will also be appreciated that in other embodiments of the invention, second fluid extrusion head 120 is removably mounted on the extruder and first fluid extrusion head 110 is fixedly mounted on the extruder, or both fluid extrusion heads are fixedly/removably mounted on the extruder. In summary, the implementation of the present invention is not limited by the types of materials of the first fluid and the second fluid and the manner in which the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are mounted.

The position sensor assembly 130 may be disposed on a preset plane (e.g., a printing plane of the printing platform 133), which may be fixedly disposed on the preset plane or may be detachably disposed on the preset plane. In this embodiment, the position sensor assembly 130 is detachably disposed on the printing platform 133, when the 3D printer needs to be calibrated, the position sensor assembly 130 can be mounted on the printing platform 133, and when formal 3D printing is performed, the position sensor assembly 130 can be detached from the printing platform 133 to prevent the position sensor assembly 130 from affecting the printing operation. The position sensor assembly 130 may include a first position sensor 131 disposed in a first direction (i.e., an X direction) and a second position sensor disposed in a second direction (i.e., a Y direction). Position sensors are sensors that sense the position of an object being measured and convert it into a usable output signal. Specifically, as shown in fig. 3, the first position sensor 131 and the second position sensor 132 may be disposed on an upper surface of the printing platform 133 to constitute a position sensor assembly (fig. 3 shows only a part of the printing platform 133 for simplification of the drawing), and the two sensors are disposed perpendicular to each other. To prevent the two position sensors from interfering with each other, they may be spaced apart in the X and Y directions, respectively. In some examples, the first position sensor 131 and the second position sensor 132 may be micro switches. A micro switch representing the first position sensor 131 is disposed toward the X direction, and when an object to be measured contacts and triggers the micro switch, the micro switch may generate a trigger signal to sense position information of the object to be measured in the X direction. A micro switch representing the second position sensor 132 is disposed toward the Y direction, and when an object to be measured contacts and triggers the micro switch, the micro switch may generate a trigger signal to sense position information of the object to be measured in the Y direction.

Processor 190 is configured to perform operations when executing instructions, the operations comprising: moving the extruder 140 in a first direction to bring the second fluid extrusion head 120 into contact with the position sensor assembly 130 in the first direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly 130; in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly 130 indicating that the position sensor assembly 130 is triggered, recording the position of the extruder 140 in the first direction as a first coordinate; moving extruder 140 in a second direction to bring second fluid extrusion head 120 into contact with position sensor assembly 130 in the second direction, thereby triggering position sensor assembly 130; recording the position of the extruder 140 in the second direction as a second coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly 130 indicating that the position sensor assembly 130 is triggered; moving extruder 140 in a first direction to bring first fluid extrusion head 110 into contact with position sensor assembly 130 in the first direction, thereby triggering position sensor assembly 130; recording the position of the extruder 140 in the first direction as a third coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly 130 indicating that the position sensor assembly 130 is triggered; moving extruder 140 in a second direction to bring first fluid extrusion head 110 into contact with position sensor assembly 130 in the second direction, thereby triggering position sensor assembly 130; recording the position of the extruder 140 in the second direction as a fourth coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly 130 indicating that the position sensor assembly 130 is triggered; and determining the relative position of first fluid extrusion head 110 with respect to second fluid extrusion head 120 based on the first, second, third, and fourth coordinates.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a calibration method for the 3D printer 100 is also provided. The calibration method will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 4 to 7.

Fig. 4 shows a flow chart of a calibration method 400 for the 3D printer 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The 3D printer 100 includes: an extruder 140, a first fluid extrusion head 110 disposed on the extruder 140, a second fluid extrusion head 120 disposed on the extruder 140, and a position sensor assembly 130 disposed on a predetermined plane defined by a first direction and a second direction that cross each other. As shown in fig. 4, the method 400 includes:

step 401, moving the extruder 140 along a first direction to drive the second fluid extrusion head 120 to contact the position sensor assembly 130 along the first direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly 130;

step 402, recording the position of the extruder 140 in a first direction as a first coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly 130 indicating that the position sensor assembly 130 is triggered;

step 403, moving the extruder 140 along a second direction to drive the second fluid extrusion head 120 to contact the position sensor assembly 130 along the second direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly 130;

step 404, recording the position of the extruder 140 in the second direction as a second coordinate in response to receiving the trigger signal from the position sensor assembly 130 indicating that the position sensor assembly 130 is triggered;

step 405, moving the extruder 140 along a first direction to drive the first fluid extrusion head 110 to contact the position sensor assembly 130 along the first direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly 130;

step 406, recording the position of the extruder 140 in the first direction as a third coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly 130 indicating that the position sensor assembly 130 is triggered;

step 407, moving the extruder 140 along a second direction to drive the first fluid extrusion head 110 to contact the position sensor assembly 130 along the second direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly 130;

step 408, recording the position of the extruder 140 in the second direction as a fourth coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly 130 indicating that the position sensor assembly 130 is triggered; and

in step 409, the relative position of the first fluid extrusion head 110 with respect to the second fluid extrusion head 120 is determined based on the first, second, third and fourth coordinates.

In the calibration method of the embodiment, the position sensor assembly 130 is used to obtain the relative position relationship between two different extrusion heads, so that the first fluid can be accurately applied to the target position on the 3D object to be printed in the subsequent 3D printing process.

In step 401, processor 190 sends control instructions to the drive mechanism causing the drive mechanism to drive extruder 140 in a first direction and cause second fluid extrusion head 120 on extruder 140 to gradually approach and eventually contact position sensor assembly 130. During a particular operation, the second motor 160 in the drive mechanism may be deactivated and the first motor 150 in the drive mechanism drives the extruder 140 in the X direction. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, extruder 140 may be driven to move at a constant speed along the negative direction of the X direction, and the speed is lower than the first predetermined speed, so as to prevent the collision force between second fluid extrusion head 120 and position sensor assembly 130 from being too great. The first preset speed may be set, for example, according to the size of the printing platform 133. When second fluid extrusion head 120 contacts and triggers position sensor assembly 130, position sensor assembly 130 generates a trigger signal (e.g., an electrical signal).

In step 402, processor 190 receives the trigger signal and obtains a position of extruder 140 in the X direction when second fluid extrusion head 120 contacts and triggers position sensor assembly 130. In this embodiment, the processor 190 may include a position calculation unit that may calculate a real-time position of the extruder 140 based on the drive instructions received by the drive mechanism. For example, the driving instruction may include data of driving speed, driving time, etc., and the position calculation unit may obtain the post-movement position from the data and the position of the extruder 140 before movement. When the processor 190 receives the above trigger signal, the current position of the extruder 140 in the X direction may be acquired as the first coordinate by using the position calculation unit.

In step 403, processor 190 sends control instructions to the drive mechanism to cause the drive mechanism to drive extruder 140 to move in the second direction and cause second fluid extrusion head 120 on extruder 140 to gradually approach and eventually contact position sensor assembly 130. Specifically, in contrast to step 401, the first motor 150 in the drive mechanism may be deactivated and the second motor 160 in the drive mechanism drives the extruder 140 to move in the Y direction. In this embodiment, the extruder 140 may be made to move at a constant speed along the Y direction, and the speed of the extruder may be made to be less than the first preset speed. Position sensor assembly 130 generates a trigger signal (e.g., an electrical signal) when second fluid extrusion head 120 contacts and triggers position sensor assembly 130.

In step 404, processor 190 receives the trigger signal and obtains a position of extruder 140 in a Y-direction while second fluid extrusion head 120 contacts and triggers position sensor assembly 130. Specifically, when the processor 190 receives the above trigger signal, the current position of the extruder 140 in the Y direction may be acquired as the second coordinate by the position calculation unit.

It should be noted that the above steps 401 to 402 and steps 403 to 404 may exchange the order with each other, that is, step 403 and step 404 (positioning of the extruder 140 in the Y direction) may be performed first, and then step 401 and step 402 (positioning of the extruder 140 in the X direction) may be performed, and the implementation of this embodiment is not affected by the above execution order.

Steps 405-406 operate substantially the same as steps 401-402 except that in step 405, the control instructions cause first fluid extrusion head 110 on extruder 140 (rather than second fluid extrusion head 120) to come into close proximity to and eventually contact position sensor assembly 130. Accordingly, at step 406, the position of extruder 140 in the X direction is recorded as a third coordinate when first fluid extrusion head 110 (but not second fluid extrusion head 120) contacts and triggers position sensor assembly 130.

The operation of steps 407-408 and steps 403-404 is substantially the same except that in step 407, the control instructions cause the first fluid extrusion head 110 on extruder 140 (rather than the second fluid extrusion head 120) to come into close proximity to and eventually contact position sensor assembly 130. Accordingly, in step 408, the position of extruder 140 in the Y-direction is recorded as a fourth coordinate when first fluid extrusion head 110 (but not second fluid extrusion head 120) contacts and triggers position sensor assembly 130.

It should be noted that, the above steps 405 to 406 and 407 to 408 may also be interchanged with each other, that is, the step 407 and the step 408 (the positioning of the extruder 140 in the Y direction) may be executed first, and then the step 405 and the step 406 (the positioning of the extruder 140 in the X direction) may be executed, and the implementation of this embodiment is not affected by the above execution sequence.

In addition, steps 401-404 and steps 405-408 may also be exchanged in their entirety, i.e., steps 405-408 may be performed first (to determine the position of extruder 140 when first fluid extrusion head 110 contacts position sensor assembly 130), and then steps 401-404 may be performed (to determine the position of extruder 140 when second fluid extrusion head 120 contacts position sensor assembly 130), and the implementation of this embodiment is not affected by the above-described order of execution.

In step 409, a coordinate difference Δ X in the X direction between the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 may be obtained from the first coordinate and the third coordinate, and a coordinate difference Δ Y in the Y direction between the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 may be obtained from the second coordinate and the fourth coordinate. Specifically, in the case where the outer diameters of the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are the same, the coordinate Δ X in the X direction of the first fluid extrusion head 110 with respect to the second fluid extrusion head 120 may be obtained by directly subtracting the first coordinate from the third coordinate, and the coordinate Δ Y in the Y direction of the first fluid extrusion head 110 with respect to the second fluid extrusion head 120 may be obtained by directly subtracting the second coordinate from the fourth coordinate. If the outer diameters of the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are different in size, the difference in the outer diameters of the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 needs to be taken into account when calculating the coordinates in the X direction and the coordinates in the Y direction of the two heads.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of a method 500 of acquiring first coordinates in the calibration method of FIG. 4 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. In the present embodiment, the position sensor assembly 130 includes a first position sensor 131 in the X direction and a second position sensor 132 in the Y direction. As shown in fig. 5, the method includes:

step 501, moving the extruder 140 to a first preset position where the moving track of the second fluid extrusion head 120 to the first position sensor 131 along the first direction is not blocked by the first fluid extrusion head 110;

step 502, adjusting the position of the extruder 140 in the second direction to align the second fluid extrusion head 120 with the first position sensor 131 in the second direction;

step 503, moving the extruder 140 in a first direction toward the first position sensor 131, such that the second fluid extrusion head 120 contacts and triggers the first position sensor 131;

in response to receiving a trigger signal from the first position sensor 131 indicating that the first position sensor 131 is triggered, the position of the extruder 140 in the first direction is recorded as a first coordinate, step 504.

In step 501, before driving the extruder 140 to move in the first direction, the extruder 140 is first moved to a preset initial position, i.e., a first preset position. The first predetermined position may ensure that the first fluid extrusion head 110 does not contact the first position sensor 131 or that the second fluid extrusion head 120 contacts the first position sensor 131 before the first fluid extrusion head 110 during the subsequent driving of the extruder 140 in the first direction. Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram 700 of first to fourth preset position selection according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 7, the coordinate difference in the Y direction between the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 is small, and the coordinate difference in the X direction is large, in other words, the two extrusion heads are substantially overlapped in the Y direction with a certain interval in the X direction. Therefore, when the extruder 140 is driven to move the second fluid extrusion head 120/the first fluid extrusion head 110 in the first direction (negative direction of the X direction) to contact the first position sensor 131, there is a possibility that interference occurs between the two fluid extrusion heads. For example, in the implementation of step 401 in the method of fig. 4, if the position C in fig. 7 is selected as the first predetermined position, the first fluid extrusion head 110 will contact the first position sensor 131 before the second fluid extrusion head 120, and thus the contact of the second fluid extrusion head 120 is interfered. Thus, in this case, position a in fig. 6 may be selected as the first preset position at which position sensor assembly 130 is located between first fluid extrusion head 110 and second fluid extrusion head 120. Extruder 140 may subsequently be driven to move in the negative X-axis direction so that second fluid extrusion head 120 may contact first position sensor 131 without obstruction.

In step 502, after driving the extruder 140 to the first preset position, the extruder 140 is first driven to move in the Y direction so that the second fluid extrusion head 120 is aligned with the first position sensor 131, which needs to be contacted later. The alignment process may be performed automatically by the 3D printer. For example, the 3D printer may obtain coordinates of the first position sensor 131 on the Y-axis that are calibrated in advance, and then adjust the position of the extruder 140 on the Y-axis such that the coordinates of the second fluid extrusion head 120 in the Y-direction are the same as the coordinates of the first position sensor 131 on the Y-axis. In some other embodiments of the present disclosure, the alignment may also be performed manually.

Since the second fluid extrusion head 120 and the first position sensor 131 have already been aligned in step 502, the second fluid extrusion head 120 may accurately contact and trigger the first position sensor 131 in step 503.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a method 600 of acquiring second coordinates in the calibration method of FIG. 4 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. In the present embodiment, the position sensor assembly includes a first position sensor 131 in the X direction and a second position sensor 132 in the Y direction. As shown in fig. 6, the method includes:

step 601, moving the extruder 140 to a second preset position, where the moving track of the second fluid extrusion head 120 to the second position sensor 132 along the second direction is not blocked by the first fluid extrusion head 110;

adjusting 602 the position of the extruder 140 in the first direction to align the second fluid extrusion head 120 with the second position sensor 132 in the first direction;

step 603, moving the extruder 140 in a second direction toward the second position sensor 132 such that the second fluid extrusion head 120 contacts and triggers the second position sensor 132;

in response to receiving a trigger signal from the second position sensor 132 indicating that the second position sensor 132 is triggered, the position of the extruder 140 in the second direction is recorded as a second coordinate, step 604.

In step 601, the extruder 140 is first moved to a preset initial position, i.e., a second preset position, before the extruder 140 is driven to move in the second direction. The second predetermined position may ensure that first fluid extrusion head 110 does not contact second position sensor 132 or that second fluid extrusion head 120 contacts second position sensor 132 before first fluid extrusion head 110 during subsequent driving of extruder 140 in the second direction. In the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 7, the coordinate difference in the X direction is large and the coordinate difference in the Y direction is small between the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120. When the extruder 140 is driven to move the second fluid extrusion head 120 in the Y direction to contact the second position sensor 132, the position B in fig. 7 may be selected as a second preset position where only the second fluid extrusion head 120 faces the second position sensor 132. The extruder 140 may then be driven to move in the negative Y-axis direction and the second fluid extrusion head 120 may contact the second position sensor 132 without obstruction.

In step 602, after driving the extruder 140 to the second preset position, the extruder 140 is first driven to move in the X direction so that the second fluid extrusion head 120 is aligned with the second position sensor 132 that subsequently needs to be contacted. The alignment process may be performed automatically by the 3D printer. For example, the 3D printer may obtain coordinates of the second position sensor 132 on the X-axis that are pre-calibrated and then adjust the position of the extruder 140 on the X-axis such that the coordinates of the second fluid extrusion head 120 in the X-direction are the same as the coordinates of the second position sensor 132 on the X-axis. In some other embodiments of the present disclosure, the alignment may also be performed manually.

Because the second fluid extrusion head 120 and the second position sensor 132 have been aligned in step 602, the second fluid extrusion head 120 may accurately contact and trigger the second position sensor 132 in step 603.

The initial positions (i.e. the third preset position and the fourth preset position) of the motion process of first fluid extrusion head 110 contacting position sensor assembly 130 are selected in a similar manner to the first preset position and the second preset position, that is, the third preset position and the fourth preset position are required to ensure that the motion trajectory of first fluid extrusion head 110 to first position sensor 131/second position sensor 132 along the first direction/second direction is not blocked by second fluid extrusion head 120. In addition, it is also necessary to align the positions of first fluid extrusion head 110 and first/

second position sensors

131, 132 before moving extruder 140 to bring first fluid extrusion head 110 into contact with first/

second position sensors

131, 132. As shown in fig. 7, in this embodiment, the third preset position may be selected as a position C in the drawing, and the fourth preset position may be selected as a position D in the drawing.

In summary, the method of acquiring the third coordinate and the fourth coordinate is substantially the same as the method of acquiring the first coordinate and the second coordinate, and will not be described in detail here. However, it should be noted that the first preset position to the fourth preset position are selected according to the arrangement position of the first/second position sensors 131/132 and the relative position relationship between the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120. For example, in some other embodiments of the present disclosure, first fluid extrusion head 110 and second fluid extrusion head 120 are positioned just opposite to the position shown in fig. 7, i.e., second fluid extrusion head 120 is positioned to the left of first fluid extrusion head 110, in which case the first preset position need not be positioned such that position sensor assembly 130 is between the two fluid extrusion heads, but the third preset position needs to be positioned such that position sensor assembly 130 is between the two fluid extrusion heads. For another example, in still other embodiments of the present disclosure, the difference in coordinates of the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 is small in the X direction and large in the Y direction. In other words, the two extrusion heads are substantially coincident in the X direction with a certain spacing in the Y direction. Therefore, when the driving extruder 140 drives the second fluid extrusion head 120/the first fluid extrusion head 110 to move along the second direction (negative direction of the Y direction) to contact the second position sensor 132, there is a possibility that interference occurs between the two fluid extrusion heads. In this case, the second preset position (or the fourth preset position) needs to be set such that the position sensor assembly is located between the two fluid extrusion heads to prevent the first fluid extrusion head 110 from interfering with the second fluid extrusion head 120 (or to prevent the second fluid extrusion head 120 from interfering with the first fluid extrusion head 110). In summary, the first preset position to the fourth preset position need to be set according to actual conditions to avoid interference between the two fluid extrusion heads, and all possible situations are not listed.

In some embodiments, the first position sensor 131 and the second position sensor 132 are further arranged such that: when either of first fluid extrusion head 110 and second fluid extrusion head 120 contacts and triggers first position sensor 131 in a first direction, second position sensor 132 is not triggered by first fluid extrusion head 110 and second fluid extrusion head 120; and when either of the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 contacts and triggers the second position sensor 132 in the second direction, the first position sensor 131 is not triggered by the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120. In the present embodiment, the first position sensor 131 and the second position sensor 132 may be disposed at a certain preset distance in both the X direction and the Y direction to prevent mutual interference between the two position sensors. For example, the preset distance may be set to be greater than the outer diameter sizes of the first and second fluid extrusion heads 110 and 120. Thus, during, for example, the first fluid extrusion head 110 contacting the first position sensor 131, the second fluid extrusion head 120 may be less able to contact the second position sensor 132.

How to improve the 3D printing process according to the relative position of the first fluid extrusion head 110 with respect to the second fluid extrusion head 120 obtained in the above method is described in detail below with reference to fig. 8. Fig. 8 shows a flow diagram of a 3D printing method 800 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The method 800 includes:

step 801, executing the calibration method for the 3D printer 100.

Printing is performed using the second fluidic extrusion head 120, step 802.

In step 803, when the first fluid is applied to the printing object printed by the second fluid extrusion head 120 by the first fluid extrusion head 110, the motion trajectory of the extruder 140 is corrected according to the relative position of the first fluid extrusion head 110 with respect to the second fluid extrusion head 120.

In this embodiment, the first fluid may be a release material and the second fluid may be a printing material. The printing material is the build material that ultimately forms the object to be printed (or target object). A release material may be applied between the two portions of printed material for facilitating separation between the two portions. For example, when printing a free space in a 3D object, the processor 190 controls the extruder 140 to print out the supporting portion by using the second fluid extrusion head 120, and then controls the extruder 140 to apply the release material on the upper surface of the supporting portion by using the first fluid extrusion head 110. Next, the 3D object itself is printed. After molding, the support portion is removed from the entire printed object, resulting in an object to be printed.

In step 801, the relative position (Δ X, Δ Y) of the first fluid extrusion head 110 with respect to the second fluid extrusion head 120 may be obtained using the calibration method shown in fig. 4.

In step 802, the support portion is printed with the second fluid extrusion head 120, depending on the actual shape of the object to be printed.

A first fluid is applied on the printed object formed in step 802 using a first fluid extrusion head 110. It can be understood that due to the position difference between the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120, the movement track of the first fluid extrusion head 110 needs to be corrected to ensure that the first fluid is accurately applied to the printing support part. In step 803, the motion trajectory of the first fluid extrusion head 110 may be corrected according to the relative position (Δ X, Δ Y) obtained in step 801. Specifically, the movement track of the extruder 140 when the second fluid extrusion head 120 prints a support portion may be first obtained, and the movement track may be translated by the length of the absolute value of the relative position in the opposite direction of the relative position (Δ X, Δ Y), to obtain the movement track of the first fluid extrusion head 110. The corrected motion track is used for controlling the extruder 140 to drive the first fluid extrusion head 110 to print, so that the first fluid can be accurately applied to the supporting part.

The printing method 800 described above is described with respect to the first fluid being a release material. It will be appreciated that in other embodiments of the invention the first and second fluids may be different materials, for example different colours. The first fluid and the second fluid may form two portions of the final printed object, which are different in color, respectively, and in the printing method of this embodiment, the first portion formed by the second fluid may be printed first, and then the first fluid may be applied to the first portion to form the second portion. The movement trajectory of the extruder 140 is corrected using the relative position (Δ X, Δ Y) while the first fluid is applied.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is also provided a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the computer program, when executed by the processor 190, implements the steps of the method as in any of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is also provided a computer program product, wherein the computer program realizes the steps of the method as in any of the embodiments of the present disclosure when executed by the processor 190.

It should be understood that various forms of the flows shown above may be used, with steps reordered, added, or deleted. For example, the steps described in the present disclosure may be performed in parallel, sequentially or in different orders, and are not limited herein as long as the desired results of the technical aspects of the present disclosure can be achieved.

It will be understood that in this specification, the terms "center," "longitudinal," "lateral," "length," "width," "thickness," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," "clockwise," "counterclockwise," "axial," "radial," "circumferential," and the like, indicate an orientation or positional relationship or dimension based on that shown in the drawings, which terms are used for convenience of description only and do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore should not be considered limiting to the scope of the disclosure.

Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," "third," and the like are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicit to a number of indicated technical features. Thus, features defined as "first", "second", and "third" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the features. In the description of the present disclosure, "a plurality" means two or more unless specifically limited otherwise.

In the present disclosure, unless otherwise expressly stated or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," "secured," and the like are to be construed broadly and can, for example, be fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integral; the connection can be mechanical connection, electrical connection or communication; they may be directly connected or indirectly connected through intervening media, or may be connected through the use of two elements or the interaction of two elements. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present disclosure can be understood as a specific case by a person of ordinary skill in the art.

In the present disclosure, unless expressly stated or limited otherwise, the first feature "on" or "under" the second feature may comprise the first and second features being in direct contact, or may comprise the first and second features being in contact, not directly, but via another feature in between. Also, the first feature "on," "above" and "over" the second feature may include the first feature being directly above and obliquely above the second feature, or simply indicating that the first feature is at a higher level than the second feature. "beneath," "under" and "beneath" a first feature includes the first feature being directly beneath and obliquely beneath the second feature, or simply indicating that the first feature is at a lesser elevation than the second feature.

This specification provides many different embodiments, or examples, which can be used to implement the present disclosure. It should be understood that these various embodiments or examples are purely exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure in any way. Those skilled in the art can conceive of various changes or substitutions based on the disclosure of the specification of the present disclosure, which are intended to be included within the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the protection scope of the present disclosure should be subject to the protection scope defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A calibration method for a 3D printer, wherein the 3D printer comprises: an extruder, a first fluid extrusion head disposed on the extruder, a second fluid extrusion head disposed on the extruder, and a position sensor assembly disposed on a preset plane defined by a first direction and a second direction that intersect each other, the method comprising:

moving the extruder in the first direction to bring the second fluid extrusion head into contact with the position sensor assembly in the first direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly;

recording a position of the extruder in the first direction as a first coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly indicating that the position sensor assembly is triggered;

moving the extruder in the second direction to bring the second fluid extrusion head into contact with the position sensor assembly in the second direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly;

recording a position of the extruder in the second direction as a second coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly indicating that the position sensor assembly is triggered;

moving the extruder in the first direction to bring the first fluid extrusion head into contact with the position sensor assembly in the first direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly;

recording a position of the extruder in the first direction as a third coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly indicating that the position sensor assembly is triggered;

moving the extruder in the second direction to bring the first fluid extrusion head into contact with the position sensor assembly in the second direction, thereby triggering the position sensor assembly;

recording a position of the extruder in the second direction as a fourth coordinate in response to receiving a trigger signal from the position sensor assembly indicating that the position sensor assembly is triggered; and

determining a relative position of the first fluid extrusion head with respect to the second fluid extrusion head based on the first, second, third, and fourth coordinates.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the position sensor assembly comprises:

a first position sensor disposed in the first direction to sense a position of the extruder in the first direction when contacted and triggered by the first or second fluid extrusion heads along the first direction; and

a second position sensor disposed in the second direction to sense a position of the extruder in the second direction when contacted and triggered by the first fluid extrusion head or the second fluid extrusion head along the second direction.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein moving the extruder in the first direction to bring the second fluid extrusion head into contact with the position sensor assembly in the first direction comprises:

adjusting the position of the extruder in the second direction to align the second fluid extrusion head with the first position sensor in the first direction; and

moving the extruder in the first direction toward the first position sensor such that the second fluid extrusion head contacts and triggers the first position sensor.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

prior to adjusting the position of the extruder in the second direction to align the second fluid extrusion head with the first position sensor in the first direction:

moving the extruder to a first preset position where a trajectory of movement of the second fluid extrusion head to the first position sensor in the first direction is unobstructed by the first fluid extrusion head.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein moving the extruder in the second direction to bring the second fluid extrusion head into contact with the position sensor assembly in the second direction comprises:

adjusting a position of the extruder in the first direction to align the second fluid extrusion head with the second position sensor in the second direction; and

moving the extruder in the second direction toward the second position sensor such that the second fluid extrusion head contacts and triggers the second position sensor.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

prior to adjusting the position of the extruder in the first direction to align the second fluid extrusion head with the second position sensor in the second direction:

moving the extruder to a second preset position at which the trajectory of the second fluid extrusion head to the second position sensor in the second direction is unobstructed by the first fluid extrusion head.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein moving the extruder in the first direction to bring the first fluid extrusion head into contact with the position sensor assembly in the first direction comprises:

adjusting the position of the extruder in the second direction to align the first fluid extrusion head with the first position sensor in the first direction; and

moving the extruder in the first direction toward the first position sensor such that the first fluid extrusion head contacts and triggers the first position sensor.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

prior to adjusting the position of the extruder in the second direction to align the first fluid extrusion head with the first position sensor in the first direction:

moving the extruder to a third preset position at which the trajectory of the first fluid extrusion head to the first position sensor in the first direction is unobstructed by the second fluid extrusion head.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein moving the extruder in the second direction to bring the first fluid extrusion head into contact with the position sensor assembly in the second direction comprises:

adjusting a position of the extruder in the first direction to align the first fluid extrusion head with the second position sensor in the second direction; and

moving the extruder in the second direction toward the second position sensor such that the first fluid extrusion head contacts and triggers the second position sensor.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

prior to adjusting the position of the extruder in the first direction to align the first fluid extrusion head with the second position sensor in the second direction:

moving the extruder to a fourth preset position at which the trajectory of the first fluid extrusion head in the second direction to the second position sensor is unobstructed by the second fluid extrusion head.

11. The method according to any one of claims 2-10, wherein the first and second position sensors are arranged such that:

the second position sensor is not triggered by the first and second fluid extrusion heads when either of the first and second fluid extrusion heads contacts and triggers the first position sensor in the first direction; and is

The first position sensor is not triggered by the first fluid extrusion head and the second fluid extrusion head when either of the first fluid extrusion head and the second fluid extrusion head contacts and triggers the second position sensor along the second direction.

12. The method of any of claims 2-10, wherein the first position sensor and the second position sensor are each microswitches.

13. The method of any of claims 1-10, wherein the first fluid is a release material and the second fluid is a printing material.

14. The method of any one of claims 1-10,

wherein the 3D printer further comprises a printing platform disposed below the extruder, configured to support an object to be printed, and

wherein, the preset plane is the upper surface of the printing platform.

15. The method of any of claims 1-10, wherein the first direction and the second direction are perpendicular to each other.

16. A method of 3D printing, comprising:

performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 15; and

and when the first fluid is applied to the printing object which is printed by the second fluid extrusion head by using the first fluid extrusion head, correcting the motion track of the extruder according to the relative position of the first fluid extrusion head relative to the second fluid extrusion head.

17. A 3D printer, comprising:

an extruder;

a first fluid extrusion head disposed on the extruder configured to output a first fluid;

a second fluid extrusion head disposed on the extruder configured to output a second fluid;

a position sensor assembly disposed on a preset plane defined by a first direction and a second direction crossing each other; and

a processor configured, when executing instructions, to carry out the method of any one of claims 1 to 16.

18. The 3D printer of claim 17, further comprising:

a first motor configured to drive the extruder to move in the first direction; and

a second motor configured to drive the extruder to move in the second direction.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the computer program when executed by a processor implements the steps of the method of any of claims 1 to 16.

20. A computer program product comprising a computer program, wherein the computer program realizes the steps of the method of any one of claims 1 to 16 when executed by a processor.