JP3306470B2 - Optical modeling - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical shaping method for forming a solid having a desired shape by using light and a photocurable fluid material.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a model corresponding to a product shape required at the time of manufacturing a mold, or a model for controlling copying of a cutting process or a model for an electric discharge machining electrode has been manufactured by hand processing or It has been performed by NC cutting using an NC milling machine or the like. However, in the case of manual processing, there is a problem that much labor and skill are required,
In the case of using NC cutting, it is necessary to create a complicated machining program that takes into account replacement and wear of the cutting edge shape of the cutting tool, and further requires finishing in order to remove a step generated on the machined surface. There was a problem that sometimes.

In order to cope with such a problem, various methods have been proposed for selectively curing a photocurable resin to obtain a solid having a desired shape.

For example, as one method of forming a solid using the photocurable resin, a method has been proposed in which selective light irradiation based on masking of the photocurable resin is repeated to obtain a desired solid. In this method, when irradiating light from above or below onto a very shallow photocurable resin, a masking film having a light transmitting portion corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of the three-dimensional object to be obtained is placed in front of the photocurable resin. Then, by this irradiation, to obtain a thin layer cured portion of the desired cross-sectional shape,
This is a method of obtaining a desired three-dimensional object by repeating the light irradiation by gradually increasing the depth of the photocurable resin and sequentially replacing the masking film with respect to the continuous cross-sectional shape.

As another method, a light-curable fluid material layer having a thickness capable of obtaining a continuous hardened portion is subjected to concentrated light energy irradiation in accordance with a cross-sectional shape of a solid having a desired shape to form a predetermined hardened portion. After that, a new photocurable fluid material layer is added to the surface of the cured portion, and light energy concentrated irradiation is performed again on the cross-sectional shape continuous to the cured portion to form a new cured portion. There has been proposed a method of obtaining a solid.

In the above-mentioned various methods, the solid may be firmly fixed to a base surface for holding the solid having a desired shape, for example, a bottom wall of a container or a base plate for supporting the solid. It took time to separate the solid surface from the base surface, and the solid was sometimes damaged.

Further, in the course of producing a solid having a shape such as a sphere contacting with a very small area with respect to the base surface, the hardened portion is peeled off from the base surface or inclined with respect to the base surface to form the solid. There was a problem that it was not possible to continue.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and to surely form a solid having a desired shape, and to separate the solid from the substrate surface after the solid is formed, with the breakage of the solid. An object of the present invention is to provide an optical shaping method which can be easily performed without using any method.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is as follows.
A photo-curable fluid substance that is cured by light is stored in a container,
While irradiating the fluid material with light, the irradiated portion is moved relative to the container in the horizontal and vertical directions in accordance with the shape of the object to be molded, and a solid having a desired shape is formed on the substrate surface. Pillar interposed between surface and desired shape solid
This is achieved by an optical shaping method characterized in that a body-shaped support portion is formed based on light irradiation, and a solid is formed so that the whole solid having a desired shape is supported by the support portion.

[0010] The support portion may have a small contact area with the solid having the desired shape, and may be provided at one or a plurality of positions so as to support the solid.

As the photo-curable fluid substance, various substances which can be cured by light irradiation can be used, and examples thereof include modified polyurethane methacrylate, oligoester acrylate, urethane acrylate, epoxy acrylate, photosensitive polyimide, and amino alkyd. Can be.

The photo-curable fluid substance may be used in which a modifying material such as a pigment, ceramic powder, metal powder or the like is mixed in advance.

As the light, various lights such as visible light and ultraviolet light can be used depending on the photocurable substance used. The light may be ordinary light, but by using laser light, the energy level is increased to shorten the molding time,
It is possible to obtain an advantage that the modeling accuracy can be improved by utilizing the good light collecting property.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a step-by-step process of manufacturing a solid having a desired shape using an apparatus for performing an optical shaping method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The apparatus comprises a container (not shown) for accommodating the photocurable fluid substance (A), a base plate (2) supported on the lower end of a vertically extending support rod (1), and a light source above the container. And a light converging device (4) for converging light emitted from the container in a point-like manner near the upper surface of the fluid material (A) in the container, so as to move the light irradiation position relatively to the fluid material (A). It has become. The light source and the light concentrator (4) are fixed outside the container and move mainly in the horizontal direction with respect to the container. Optical converging device (4)
May be, for example, a concave mirror instead of the convex lens. In addition, the upper end of the support rod (1) that supports the base plate (2) is also fixed outside the container, and moves vertically with respect to the container.

Movement control of the light source and the light converging device (4);
Alternatively, the movement control of the support bar (1) can be appropriately performed, such as automatic control of NC or the like, manual control, or the like.

In order to form a solid having a shape similar to a sphere, for example, by using the present apparatus, first, the photocurable fluid substance (A) is accommodated in a container, and the base plate (2) is placed from above. The substrate is immersed and positioned in the fluid material (A) by light irradiation so that a continuous hardened portion extending from the upper surface of the fluid material (A) to the upper surface of the base plate (2) is obtained. Thereafter, light having an energy level necessary for curing the fluid material is emitted from the light source, and the light is converged in a point shape by the light converging device (4), and the light is conveyed between the base plate (2) and the above-mentioned spherical solid. A cured part corresponding to the support part (3) supporting the solid is obtained (see FIG. 1A).

After the cured portion is obtained, the depth from the upper surface of the fluid material (A) to the upper surface of the cured portion is the depth at which a continuous cured portion extending between these two surfaces can be obtained by light irradiation, ie, the cured portion. The base plate (2) is settled so as to have the same depth as the portion was formed, and concentrated light irradiation through the light converging device (4) is selectively performed as described above, so that a new light is formed on the hardened portion. A continuous hardened part is obtained. The support portion (3) obtained by repeating this operation is constituted by a plurality of columns having a small diameter and extending vertically. Further, sedimentation of the base plate (2) and formation of a hardened portion by light irradiation are repeated (see FIG. 1B), and a spherical solid (5) is formed on the support portion (3) (FIG. c)). As described above, since the solid is formed such that the support portion (3) is interposed between the solid (5) and the base plate (2), the hardened portion having a round bottom surface is peeled off from the base plate (2). The spherical solid (5) can be formed smoothly and reliably without being inclined with respect to the base plate (2).

After the formation of the solid (5), the support (3) is broken to separate the solid (5) from the base plate (2) (see FIG. 1 (d)). Since the support portion (3) is formed of the above-described thin column, the contact area with the base plate (2) is small, and the support portion (3) can be easily broken on the base plate (2). Further, the support portion (3) may be peeled off from the contact surface with the base plate (2). In any case, the solid (5) can be separated from the base plate (2) without any trouble, and the solid (5) is not damaged. Next, the support part (3) separated from the base plate (2) is removed from the solid (5) by an appropriate means as shown in FIG. Thereby, a desired spherical solid (5) without any breakage or the like can be obtained.

[0019]

[0020]

The supporting portion is not limited to the above-mentioned shape, but may be, for example, a single column supporting the center of the lower surface of the solid having the desired shape.

As described above, the method of the present invention is characterized in that the molding is performed by interposing a support between the base surface and the solid having the desired shape. It is applied to various shaping methods based on light irradiation. For example, a method of forming a solid by light irradiation while raising the upper surface of the photocurable fluid material in the container, while immersing a box having a transparent plate in the photocurable fluid material in the container and raising the transparent plate A method for forming a solid based on light irradiation through the transparent plate, a method in which a part of a side wall or a bottom wall of a container is a transparent plate and a base surface supporting a hardened portion is irradiated with light through the transparent plate while moving away from the transparent plate. It can be applied to a method of forming a solid on a base surface based on the method. Light irradiation in these methods includes, for example, light irradiation using a light guide, light irradiation that intersects light emitted from a plurality of light sources at one point, and light irradiation whose cross section perpendicular to the optical axis has a circular light quantity distribution. Etc. can be adopted.

[0023]

As is clear from the above, according to the method of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. That is, the support portion is formed based on light irradiation so that a solid portion is formed between the base surface and the solid having the desired shape so that a support portion having a shape that can be removed after the solid is formed. Since the supporting portion is removed, the solid having the desired shape can be surely formed, and the solid can be easily separated from the base surface after the solid has been formed without damage to the solid.
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[Brief description of the drawings]

[1] (a) ~ (e) is Ru illustration der stepwise showing optical modeling method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Support rod 2 Base plate (base surface) 3 Support part 4 Light converging device 5 Solid of desired shape A Photocurable fluid substance

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Takashi Nakai 3-8-1 Karigaoka, Hirakata-shi, Osaka B43-6 (72) Inventor Seiji Hayano 2-6-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Mitsubishi Corporation (56) References JP-A-63-72526 (JP, A) Takashi Nakai, et al. "Transactions of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers", The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, February 25, 1988, Vol. J71-D, No. 2, P416-423 (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B29C 67/00 B29C 35/00-35/08

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A photo-curable fluid material which is cured by light is accommodated in a container, and while the fluid material is irradiated with light, the irradiated portion is formed into a shape to be shaped in a horizontal and vertical direction with respect to the container. In order to form a solid having a desired shape on the base surface, a columnar support portion interposed between the base surface and the desired shape solid is formed based on light irradiation, and the desired shape solid is formed. An optical shaping method, wherein a solid is formed so that the whole is supported by the support.