CN220196335U - Additive manufacturing device based on powder bed - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model relates to the technical field of additive manufacturing, and discloses an additive manufacturing device based on a powder bed. The powder cylinder is driven by the powder cylinder electric cylinder to move up and down so as to realize up and down powder feeding; the molding cylinder is driven by an electric cylinder of the molding cylinder to move up and down; the scraper moving mechanism drives the scraper to spread powder. The cladding processing head is arranged on the three-dimensional movement mechanism and can reach any position in the additive manufacturing forming area under the driving of the cladding processing head; the energy heat source unit transmits energy to the cladding processing head, and selectively melts, sinters and forms the powder paved on the surface of the forming cylinder. The utility model combines the additive manufacturing of the powder bed with the directional energy deposition manufacturing, combines the advantages of the two technologies, overcomes the defects of the two technologies, can improve the additive manufacturing efficiency, processes complex special-shaped parts, and has higher processing precision.

Description

Additive manufacturing device based on powder bed

Technical Field

The utility model relates to the technical field of additive manufacturing, in particular to a laser additive manufacturing device based on a powder bed.

Background

The additive manufacturing technology is a technology for stacking three-dimensional entities by adopting a mode of layer-by-layer printing by selecting different materials based on a digital model file. Current common additive manufacturing techniques include both powder bed additive manufacturing techniques and directed energy deposition. The powder bed technology is characterized in that a powder layer with the thickness of 0.05-0.1mm is paved in advance by using a powder paving device, and then laser is used for scanning according to a specified path, so that sintered powder is melted and stacked layer by layer to realize solid manufacturing, and therefore, the powder bed technology is also called as a powder paving type additive manufacturing technology. The directional energy deposition technique does not rely on a powder bed, but instead, a powder or wire is fed under an energy source such as a laser or electron beam by a powder/wire feeder, while moving along a predetermined path, while depositing and shaping until the part is printed layer by layer.

Powder bed technology mainly includes two kinds of Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and electron beam selective melting (EBM) depending on the heat source. Existing powder bed techniques can process complex thin-walled parts, but are less efficient than directional energy deposition. For example, when a selective laser melting additive manufacturing device is used for processing titanium alloy, the efficiency is generally below 200g/h, and the laser directed energy deposition manufacturing technology (LDM) can be several times as high as the efficiency.

The material-increasing manufacturing technology works in a mode of layer-by-layer printing and stacking, in the powder-spreading printing technology, the selective laser melting technology changes the beam transmission position through a vibrating mirror, electron beam selective melting controls electron beam deflection movement through a scanning coil, powder stored in a powder cylinder is scraped into a sintered molding cylinder through a scraper, and each layer of powder is spread, and laser performs one layer of sintering, so that selective melting is achieved. The technology has the advantages that complex special-shaped parts can be manufactured, the manufacturing efficiency is low, the power of the selected laser beam is not excessively high, for example, the melting and the printing forming can be carried out by adopting the power of about 200-500w for micron-sized metal powder. The laser directional energy deposition manufacturing technology drives a laser cladding processing head through a triaxial movement mechanism, and the laser cladding processing head is provided with a coaxial powder feeding device for direct melt deposition molding, so that the laser directional energy deposition manufacturing technology has the advantages of being suitable for high-power laser sintering manufacturing, high in efficiency, for example, aiming at powder between 50 microns and 200 microns, aiming at different material characteristics, laser beams with power above 1kw and even 2kw-10kw are generally needed, but the defects are that complex special-shaped workpieces cannot be processed, and the precision of workpieces is not high.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the defects and shortcomings of the prior art, the utility model aims to provide an additive manufacturing device based on a powder bed, which combines the powder bed additive manufacturing technology with the directional energy deposition manufacturing technology, drives a laser cladding processing head to move through a triaxial movement structure, scrapes powder in a material cylinder to a forming cylinder through a scraper in a sintering space for selective sintering forming, improves the production efficiency, can process complex special-shaped parts, and has higher processing precision.

According to a first aspect of the object of the present utility model, there is provided a powder bed-based additive manufacturing apparatus comprising:

forming a bin;

the powder cylinder is connected with the forming bin, the bottom of the powder cylinder is connected with the powder cylinder electric cylinder and is driven to move up and down by the powder cylinder electric cylinder so as to realize up and down powder feeding;

the bottom of the forming cylinder is connected with the forming cylinder electric cylinder and is driven by the forming cylinder electric cylinder to move up and down;

the scraper and scraper moving mechanism is arranged in the forming bin, and the scraper is arranged on the scraper moving mechanism and can be driven by the scraper moving mechanism to move along a preset direction and scrape powder of the powder cylinder to the forming cylinder in the moving process to finish powder paving;

the three-dimensional movement mechanism is positioned in the forming bin and can move in the X-direction, Y-direction and Z-direction spaces;

the cladding processing head is mounted on the three-dimensional movement mechanism and can reach any position in the additive manufacturing forming area under the driving of the three-dimensional movement mechanism;

and the energy heat source unit is positioned outside the forming bin, and transmits energy to the cladding processing head through the heat source transmission assembly so as to selectively melt, sinter and form the powder paved on the surface of the forming cylinder.

As an optional embodiment, the additive manufacturing device based on a powder bed is further provided with a powder collecting device connected with the forming bin and used for collecting excessive powder for laying powder, one end of the powder collecting device is opened and communicated with the forming bin, and the other end of the powder collecting device is communicated to the collecting bin.

As an alternative embodiment, the powder cylinder, the forming cylinder and the powder collecting device are arranged in sequence along the powder spreading movement direction of the scraper.

As an alternative embodiment, the three-dimensional movement mechanism is a multi-joint mechanical arm, and the cladding processing head is mounted on the multi-joint mechanical arm as an end effector and driven to move at any position in the additive manufacturing forming area.

As an optional implementation mode, the three-dimensional movement mechanism is a gantry type three-dimensional movement mechanism and comprises an X-direction movement mechanism, a Y-direction movement mechanism and a Z-direction movement mechanism, wherein the X-direction movement mechanism is connected with the forming bin, the Y-direction movement mechanism is arranged on the X-direction movement mechanism, the Z-direction movement mechanism is arranged on the Y-direction movement mechanism, the cladding processing head is arranged on the Z-direction movement mechanism, and the cladding processing head is driven to move at any position in the additive manufacturing forming area.

As an alternative implementation mode, the X-direction movement mechanism, the Y-direction movement mechanism and the Z-direction movement mechanism are all linear movement modules.

As an alternative embodiment, depending on the melting and sintering energy source, such as laser, electron beam, arc, plasma arc, etc., the energy source unit selected in the present utility model may be one of a laser, electron beam unit, arc welding power source, or plasma power source, and correspondingly, the cladding processing head may be one of a laser processing head, electron gun, arc welding gun, or plasma gun.

The powder bed-based additive manufacturing device provided by the utility model combines the powder bed additive manufacturing technology and the directional energy deposition manufacturing technology, uses the three-dimensional movement mechanism to drive the processing head to move in the additive manufacturing space of the forming bin, is provided with the powder cylinder, the forming cylinder and the powder recovery mechanism at the bottom of the forming bin, scrapes powder of the powder cylinder (powder is supplied by moving up and down) to the forming cylinder through the scraper, and performs selective sintering forming, thereby combining the advantages of the two technologies, having the capability of manufacturing complex special-shaped parts, and improving the processing efficiency and the processing precision of additive manufacturing.

It should be understood that all combinations of the foregoing concepts, as well as additional concepts described in more detail below, may be considered a part of the inventive subject matter of the present disclosure as long as such concepts are not mutually inconsistent. In addition, all combinations of claimed subject matter are considered part of the disclosed inventive subject matter.

The foregoing and other aspects, embodiments, and features of the present teachings will be more fully understood from the following description, taken together with the accompanying drawings. Other additional aspects of the utility model, such as features and/or advantages of the exemplary embodiments, will be apparent from the description which follows, or may be learned by practice of the embodiments according to the teachings of the utility model.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a powder bed-based additive manufacturing apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present utility model.

The meaning of the individual reference numerals in the figures is as follows:

10-forming a bin;

20-a powder cylinder and 21-an electric cylinder of the powder cylinder;

30-forming cylinder, 31-forming cylinder electric cylinder;

40-scraping knife;

50-a scraper motion mechanism;

60-cladding a processing head;

70-powder collection device, 71-collection bin;

80-energy heat source unit, 81-optical fiber transmission assembly;

100-three-dimensional motion mechanism, 101-X motion mechanism, 102-Y motion mechanism and 103-Z motion mechanism.

Detailed Description

For a better understanding of the technical content of the present utility model, specific examples are set forth below, along with the accompanying drawings.

Aspects of the utility model are described in this disclosure with reference to the drawings, in which are shown a number of illustrative embodiments. The embodiments of the present disclosure are not necessarily intended to include all aspects of the utility model. It should be understood that the various concepts and embodiments described above, as well as those described in more detail below, may be implemented in any of a number of ways, as the disclosed concepts and embodiments are not limited to any implementation. Additionally, some aspects of the disclosure may be used alone or in any suitable combination with other aspects of the disclosure.

The additive manufacturing device based on the powder bed in combination with the embodiment shown in fig. 1 aims to overcome the defects of the powder bed additive manufacturing technology and the directional energy deposition manufacturing technology by combining the advantages of the powder bed additive manufacturing technology and the directional energy deposition manufacturing technology, and provides an additive manufacturing scheme based on the powder bed, so that the aim of improving the processing efficiency of additive manufacturing is fulfilled, and the device has the capability of processing complex special-shaped parts and higher processing precision.

As an alternative example, the powder bed-based additive manufacturing apparatus shown in fig. 1 includes a molding bin 10, a powder cylinder 20, a molding cylinder 30, a doctor blade 40, a doctor blade movement mechanism 50, a cladding process head 60, and an energy heat source unit 80.

The cladding processing head 60 is disposed inside the molding chamber 10 and is disposed so as to be movable in a spatial position inside the molding chamber 10 by being driven by the three-dimensional movement mechanism 100.

A forming plenum 10, as shown in fig. 1, defines a process forming space for additive manufacturing. The forming bin 10 may be generally formed from a high strength, high temperature, corrosion resistant material. The forming chamber 10 may also be configured with externally viewable window features, such as transparent tempered glass windows, for an operator to externally view the status of the part being processed and/or the operational status of the apparatus.

The doctor blade 40, the doctor blade movement mechanism 50, and the cladding process head 60 are disposed inside the forming bin 10.

It should be appreciated that although not shown in FIG. 1, the interior of the forming chamber 10 may also be configured with shielding gas passages and fume filtration and recirculation passages, and/or various types of sensors for monitoring printing environment parameters, such as various types of sensors for monitoring pressure, temperature, oxygen content within the forming chamber 10. The aforementioned shielding gas passages are intended to introduce shielding gas into the interior of the forming chamber 10 to achieve and/or maintain the desired atmosphere for printing, such as controlling the oxygen content. The flue gas filtering and circulating channel aims at filtering and recycling the flue gas generated in the printing process and improving the quality of printed parts.

Of course, in alternative embodiments, the interior of the forming chamber 10 may be configured accordingly based on the process control requirements and quality requirements of the printed parts.

In the example of the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 1, the powder cylinder 20 is connected to the molding chamber 10, the bottom of the powder cylinder 20 is connected to the powder cylinder electric cylinder 21, and the powder cylinder is driven to move up and down via the powder cylinder electric cylinder 21 to realize up and down feeding of powder.

The molding cylinder 30 is connected with the molding chamber 10, and the bottom of the molding cylinder 30 is connected with the molding cylinder electric cylinder 31 and is driven by the molding cylinder electric cylinder 31 to move up and down.

The doctor blade 40 and the doctor blade movement mechanism 50 are both located inside the forming bin 10. The doctor blade 40 is mounted on the doctor blade moving mechanism 50 and is capable of being driven by the doctor blade moving mechanism 50 to move in a predetermined direction and scraping powder of the powder cylinder 20 to the forming cylinder 30 during the movement to uniformly spread the powder on the surface of the forming cylinder, thereby completing the powder spreading process.

In the example of the present utility model, the doctor blade movement mechanism 50 is exemplified by a linear movement module, including, for example, but not limited to, a linear motor movement mechanism, a motor-driven rack and pinion movement mechanism, a linear screw guide movement mechanism, and the like.

In the example of the present utility model, the powder cylinder 20 and the molding bin 10 may be coupled by screw locking, and a sealing strip may be installed therebetween to ensure the overall air tightness. The molding cylinder 30 is connected with the molding bin 10 by screws, and a sealing strip is arranged between the molding cylinder and the molding bin 10 to ensure the overall air tightness.

It should be understood that in the implementation of the present utility model, the powder cylinder 20, the powder cylinder electric cylinder 21, the molding cylinder 30, the molding cylinder electric cylinder 31, the doctor blade 40, the doctor blade movement mechanism 50 and the connection and configuration relationship thereof with the molding chamber 10 may use the configuration manner in the SLM printing apparatus in the prior art, so that the powder can be fed layer by layer through the up-and-down movement of the powder cylinder (through the powder supplying up-and-down of the powder supporting plate of the powder cylinder) during the printing and sintering process of the part, and the doctor blade 40 is driven by the doctor blade movement mechanism 50 to scrape the powder provided by the powder cylinder 20 onto the surface of the molding cylinder 30, and it should be understood that the molding cylinder 30 moves layer by layer under the driving of the molding cylinder electric cylinder 31, descends one layer for each printing and performs the layer by layer powder laying and sintering and printing and molding.

As shown in fig. 1, a powder collecting device 70 is connected to the forming bin 10 for collecting the powder superfluous from the laying of the powder, and one end of the powder collecting device 70 is opened and communicated with the forming bin 10, and the other end is communicated to a collecting bin 71.

As shown in fig. 1, the powder cylinder 20, the molding cylinder 30, and the powder collecting device 70 are arranged in this order along the direction of the powder laying movement of the doctor blade 40. The scraper 40 moves from right to left to scrape the powder of the powder cylinder 20 onto the surface of the forming cylinder 30, and the excessive powder is hung on the powder collecting device 70 and communicated into the collecting bin 71 to be recovered and collected, so that the powder is beneficial to recovery and reutilization after screening.

Preferably, the powder collecting device 70 is fastened to the molding bin 10 by screws, and a sealing strip is installed therebetween to ensure the overall air tightness.

In the example shown in connection with fig. 1, a three-dimensional movement mechanism 100 is mounted inside the forming bin 10, capable of movement in X-direction, Y-direction, and Z-direction spaces.

The cladding processing head 60 is mounted on the three-dimensional movement mechanism 100 and can reach any position in the additive manufacturing forming area under the drive of the three-dimensional movement mechanism 100.

An energy heat source unit 80, which is located outside the forming bin 10, and which transmits energy to the cladding processing head through a heat source transmission assembly, to selectively melt sinter-form the powder laid on the surface of the forming cylinder 30.

As one example, the three-dimensional motion mechanism 100 may employ a gantry type three-dimensional motion mechanism including an X-direction motion mechanism 101, a Y-direction motion mechanism 102, and a Z-direction motion mechanism 103, the X-direction motion mechanism 101 being connected to the forming bin 10, the Y-direction motion mechanism 102 being mounted on the X-direction motion mechanism 101, the Z-direction motion mechanism 103 being mounted on the Y-direction motion mechanism 102, the cladding process head 60 being mounted on the Z-direction motion mechanism 103.

As shown in fig. 1, the forward and backward movement of the cladding processing head 60 can be realized by the movement control of the X-direction movement mechanism 101, the up and down movement of the cladding processing head 60 can be realized by the movement control of the Y-direction movement mechanism 102, and the left and right movement of the cladding processing head 60 can be realized by the movement control of the Z-direction movement mechanism 103, whereby the cladding processing head 60 can be driven to move at an arbitrary position in the additive manufacturing forming region, and the powder on the surface of the forming cylinder 30 can be selectively melted and sintered to be formed.

As an alternative example, the X-direction movement mechanism, the Y-direction movement mechanism, and the Z-direction movement mechanism all employ linear movement modules, including but not limited to a screw linear movement module.

As another example, the three-dimensional motion mechanism 100 may employ a multi-joint robotic arm on which the cladding processing head 60 is mounted as an end effector, and thus may be driven to move within the additive manufacturing molding zone to any position within the additive manufacturing molding zone to selectively melt sinter mold the powder on the surface of the molding cylinder 30.

In the example shown in fig. 1, a laser is adopted as the energy heat source unit 80, and can be driven to emit a high-energy laser beam, the high-energy laser beam is conducted to the cladding processing head 60 positioned in the forming bin 10 through the optical fiber transmission assembly 81, the cladding processing head 60 is driven to move through the three-dimensional movement mechanism 100, and laser energy is projected to a powder layer on the surface of the forming cylinder, so that selective melting, sintering and forming of materials are realized.

In the above example using laser as the energy source, the cladding processing head 60 is a laser processing head, for example, a conventional laser cladding processing head, but a coaxial powder feeding mechanism or a paraxial powder feeding mechanism is not required.

In another example, depending on the melting and sintering energy source, such as laser, electron beam, arc, plasma arc, etc., the energy heat source unit selected in the present utility model may employ an electron beam unit, arc welding power source, plasma power source, etc., in addition to the laser, and correspondingly, the cladding processing head employs an electron gun, arc welding gun, or plasma gun to achieve sintering molding of the powder layer laid on the molding cylinder.

Preferably, as the laser of the energy heat source unit 80, a high-power laser, for example, a power of 1kw or more, is selected to achieve high-efficiency selective laser melting sintering molding processing for a high-layer-thickness powder layer (for example, a layer thickness of 0.1 to 3 mm).

It will be appreciated that the heat source and the power of the heat source may be selected correspondingly for different materials (metal powder or metal alloy powder), depending on the nature of the material, to achieve melt-sinter molding.

According to the technical scheme, the additive manufacturing device based on the powder bed combines the additive manufacturing technology of the powder bed with the directional energy deposition manufacturing technology, the laser cladding processing head is driven to move through the three-dimensional movement mechanism, powder in the material cylinder is scraped to the forming cylinder through the scraper in the sintering space to carry out selective sintering forming, the problems that the existing selective laser melting technology is low in manufacturing efficiency and the laser directional energy deposition technology is difficult to process complex special-shaped parts are solved, the two additive manufacturing technologies are complementary, the advantages of the two technologies are integrated, the defects of each other are overcome, the production efficiency is improved, the capability of processing complex special-shaped parts is provided, and the processing precision is high.

While the utility model has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, it is not intended to be limiting. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and adaptations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present utility model. Accordingly, the scope of the utility model is defined by the appended claims.

Claims (8)

1. An additive manufacturing device based on a powder bed, comprising:

a forming bin (10);

the powder cylinder (20) is connected with the forming bin (10), the bottom of the powder cylinder (20) is connected with the powder cylinder electric cylinder (21), and the powder cylinder electric cylinder (21) drives the powder cylinder to move up and down so as to realize up and down powder feeding;

the molding cylinder (30) is connected with the molding bin (10), and the bottom of the molding cylinder (30) is connected with the molding cylinder electric cylinder (31) and is driven by the molding cylinder electric cylinder (31) to move up and down;

the scraper (40) and the scraper moving mechanism (50) are arranged in the forming bin (10), the scraper (40) is arranged on the scraper moving mechanism (50) and can be driven by the scraper moving mechanism (50) to move along a preset direction, and powder of the powder cylinder (20) is scraped to the forming cylinder (30) in the moving process, so that powder spreading is completed;

a three-dimensional movement mechanism (100) located inside the forming bin (10) and capable of moving in X, Y and Z directions;

a cladding processing head (60) which is mounted on the three-dimensional movement mechanism (100) and can reach any position in the additive manufacturing forming area under the drive of the three-dimensional movement mechanism (100);

and an energy heat source unit (80) which is positioned outside the forming bin (10) and transmits energy to the cladding processing head through a heat source transmission assembly so as to selectively melt, sinter and form the powder paved on the surface of the forming cylinder (30).

2. Additive manufacturing device based on a powder bed according to claim 1, characterized in that it is further provided with a powder collecting device (70) connected to the forming bin (10) for collecting the powder superfluous from the laying of powder, said powder collecting device (70) being open at one end and communicating with the forming bin (10) and at the other end to a collecting bin (71).

3. Additive manufacturing device based on powder bed according to claim 2, characterized in that the powder cylinders (20), forming cylinders (30) and powder collecting means (70) are arranged in sequence along the direction of the laying movement of the doctor (40).

4. The powder bed-based additive manufacturing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the three-dimensional motion mechanism (100) is a multi-joint robotic arm on which the cladding processing head (60) is mounted as an end effector that is driven to move anywhere within the additive manufacturing molding zone.

5. Additive manufacturing device based on powder bed according to claim 1, characterized in that the three-dimensional movement mechanism (100) is a gantry type three-dimensional movement mechanism comprising an X-direction movement mechanism, a Y-direction movement mechanism and a Z-direction movement mechanism, the X-direction movement mechanism being connected to the forming bin (10), the Y-direction movement mechanism being mounted on the X-direction movement mechanism, the Z-direction movement mechanism being mounted on the Y-direction movement mechanism, the cladding processing head (60) being mounted on the Z-direction movement mechanism, being driven to move in any position within the additive manufacturing forming zone.

6. The powder bed-based additive manufacturing apparatus of claim 5, wherein the X-direction motion mechanism, the Y-direction motion mechanism, and the Z-direction motion mechanism are all linear motion modules.

7. The powder bed based additive manufacturing apparatus according to any one of claims 1-6, wherein the energy heat source unit (80) employs one of a laser, an electron beam unit, an arc welding power supply, or a plasma power supply.

8. Additive manufacturing device based on a powder bed according to any of the claims 1-6, characterized in that the cladding processing head (60) is one of a laser processing head, an electron gun, an arc welding gun or a plasma gun.