JPH0222035A - Optical shaping - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to prevent occurrence of deformation when a cured part is formed by irradiating it with light by forming a solid while a shape-holding part for reinforcement is simultaneously cured and formed and removing the shape-holding part if necessary after forming it. CONSTITUTION:When a cured part is formed by irradiating it with light, a tongue piece 4' is most easily deformed. Therefore, a shape-holding part 5 for reinforcement over the tongue piece 4' and a neighboring part of another end part of a base 2 is prepd. at the same time when a side wall part 3 is cured and formed and then, an upper part 4 being continuously extended to the upper end is cured and formed. Therefore, when the tongue piece 4' is formed, the shape-holding part 5 extended from the base 2 reinforces and holds the tongue piece 4' and prevents the occurrence of deformation of the tongue piece 4' to make an upper part 4 without deformation. It is possible to obtain a solid having a required shape without any deformation by removing the shape- holding part 5 from the thus formed solid 7 by means of a proper method such as cutting.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical shaping method using light and a photocurable fluid material to form a solid body of a desired shape.

Conventional technology and its problems Traditionally, models corresponding to the product shape required during mold production, or models for tracing control in cutting or die-sinking electrical discharge machining electrodes, have been produced by hand processing or using an NC milling machine. This was done by NC cutting using, etc. However, when using manual machining, there is a problem in that it requires a lot of time and skill, and when using NC machining, it is necessary to create a complicated machining program that takes into account exchanges to change the shape of the cutting edge, wear, etc. In addition, there is a problem in that additional finishing machining may be required to remove steps formed on the machined surface.

To solve these problems, the present inventor has proposed the following optical modeling method (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-24
No. 7515, JP-A-62-101408).

In one embodiment of the method, a photocurable fluid material is housed in a container, and the depth is such that a continuous hardened portion extending over the upper and lower surfaces of the fluid material is obtained by irradiating light from above the container, and selectively irradiate light through a light converging device such as a convex lens to form a hardened portion extending over the upper and lower surfaces of the fluid material, and further irradiate light onto the hardened portion to a depth corresponding to the above depth. Adding a curable fluid material, selectively irradiating the fluid material with light to form a cured portion extending continuously upward from the cured portion, and adding these photocurable fluid materials and forming the cured portion. This process is repeated to form a solid in a desired shape.

The addition of the photocurable fluid substance is as shown in FIG.
This can be done by lowering the base plate (52) supported by the support rod (51) into the fluid material (A), and as shown in FIG. It can also be carried out by raising the liquid-tight box-shaped bottomed body (61) in the fluid material (A).

The cured portion (a) shown in FIG. 9 and the cured portion (b) shown in FIG. 10 are each in the process of forming a solid having the desired shape after repeated stepwise curing.

In this solid formation process, the occurrence of various deformations described below becomes a problem.

Generally, the photocurable fluid material (A) has shrinkage properties during curing, and by repeating stepwise curing, differences in the amount of shrinkage between cured parts accumulate.

Therefore, in the fluid material addition method shown in FIG.
When forming the tongue piece (a') on the hardened portion (a), there is a problem in that the end portion of the tongue piece (a') is deformed due to a difference in the amount of shrinkage.

On the other hand, in the fluid material addition method shown in FIG.
The bottomed body (61) is once raised above the depth at which the continuous hardened portion is obtained to peel off the adhesion between the bottom wall (62) and the hardened portion (b), and then the bottomed body (61) is lowered. The distance between the lower surface of the bottom wall (62) and the upper surface of the hardened portion (b) is set to be a distance corresponding to the above-mentioned depth. 62), there was a problem in that plastic deformation occurred.

Furthermore, the 11th
When solid formation is performed to obtain a solid (41) having the shape shown in Figure 11b, as shown in Figure 11b,
Solid whose four circumferential side walls are curved and deformed due to differences in the amount of shrinkage (42)
In addition, when forming a solid body (43) with an overhanging rectangular roof as shown in Fig. 12a, the 12th
As shown in Figure b, there was a problem in that the periphery of the roof (44') became a solid body (44) that was warped upward.

Fluid material (A) as another embodiment of the above optical modeling method
A molding method in which a solid body having a desired shape is formed by relatively moving a container containing a light source device and a light guide that guides light emitted from a light source device into a fluid substance (A) of the container, and from two light sources. There is a modeling method in which the emitted light is converged into points, the areas irradiated with concentrated light energy intersect with each other in the fluid material (A), and the intersections are moved to form the solid body. In these cases as well, there is a problem in that deformations similar to those shown in FIGS. 9, 11b, and 12b occur.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and provide an optical modeling method that can prevent deformation from occurring during the formation of a hardened portion by light irradiation.

Means for Solving the Problems The above-mentioned object of the present invention is to house a photocurable fluid material that hardens with light in a container, and while irradiating the fluid material with light, irradiating the light irradiation area with the container. On the other hand, in order to prevent the hardened portion from deforming during the formation process by moving it relative to the shape of the object to be modeled in the horizontal and vertical directions and forming a solid body in the desired shape, it is attached to a place where deformation is likely to occur. Or an optical shaping characterized in that the solid formation is performed while simultaneously hardening and forming a reinforcing shape-retaining portion extending over the portion and another portion, and after the formation, the shape-retaining portion is removed as necessary. achieved by law.

As the photocurable fluid substance, various substances that are cured by light irradiation can be used, such as modified polyurethane methacrylate, oligoester acrylate, urethane acrylate, epoxy acrylate, photosensitive polyimide, and amino alkyd.

The photocurable fluid substance may be mixed with a modifying material such as pigment, ceramic powder, metal powder, etc. in advance.

As the light, various types of light such as visible light and ultraviolet light can be used depending on the photocurable material used.

Although the light may be ordinary light, using laser light has the advantages of increasing the energy level, shortening the modeling time, and improving the modeling accuracy by utilizing good light focusing. can.

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a target solid body (1) having a U-shape when viewed from the side. Regarding the modeling method of this solid (1), Fig. 3 shows a method using a support rod (51) and a base plate (52) (shown in Fig. 9), and Fig. 4 shows a method using a box-shaped bottomed body ( 61) (shown in FIG. 10), one embodiment in which the present invention is applied to each method will be shown.

First, the method of the present invention shown in FIG. 3 will be explained.

First, by repeating the lowering of the base plate 1-(52) in the photocurable fluid material (A) as described above and the formation of a cured portion based on selective light irradiation via the light converging device (6), the base plate (52) is formed. Form the base (2) of the solid (1) on top. After forming the base (2), a side wall (3) extending upward from one end of the base (2) is formed, and then a mud wall (4) is formed on the side wall (3). However, during the stepwise hardening process, a thin tongue piece (4') corresponding to the lower end of the earthen wall part (4) is formed. The tongue piece (4') is
As shown in FIG. 9, the solid (1) is most likely to deform during the stepwise hardening process. Therefore, in the case of solid formation with such a shape, the tongue piece (4') that is likely to be deformed
A reinforcing shape-retaining portion (5) extending across the base portion (2) and the vicinity of the other end of the base portion (2) is provided, and the holding portion (5) is formed simultaneously with the hardening and forming of the side wall portion (3). (3
) and the shape-retaining portion (5), an upper side portion (4) continuous to the upper end thereof is formed by hardening. Therefore, the tongue piece (4
′), the shape-retaining portion (2) extending from the base (2) is formed.
5) reinforces and supports the tongue (4') and prevents deformation of the tongue (4'), so that the upper side (4) can be made without deformation. Solid (7) thus formed (second
By removing the shape-retaining portion (5) from the solid material (see figure) by an appropriate method such as cutting, it is possible to obtain a solid material (1) having a desired shape without deformation.

Note that - after forming a hardened portion based on light irradiation,
When adding the fluid substance (A) onto the hardened portion, it is actually desirable to carry out the following operation.

As shown in FIG. 7(a), when the base plate (52) is lowered to a depth that provides a continuous hardened portion on the hardened portion and the fluid substance (A) is caused to flow onto the hardened portion, the base plate Since the descending distance of (52) is extremely small, as shown in FIG. 7(b), the fluid material (
Due to the surface tension of A), the fluid substance (A)
may not flow in, the above-mentioned addition always lacks reliability, and furthermore, it is necessary to manually introduce the fluid substance (A) onto the hardened portion, which requires time and effort. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 8, the base plate (52) is lowered below the above depth to allow the fluid material (A) to flow onto the hardened portion, and then the base plate (52) is raised to allow the fluid material (A) to flow onto the hardened portion. A) If the distance between the upper surface and the upper surface of the hardened portion is set to a distance corresponding to the above-mentioned depth, the fluid material (A) can be added reliably, and manual introduction of the fluid material is not required.

Next, the method of the present invention shown in FIG. 4 will be explained.

In this method, as shown in FIG. 10, a box-shaped bottomed body (61)
A solid having a desired shape is formed by repeating the formation of a hardened portion based on the rise in the fluid material (A) and selective light irradiation passing through the bottom wall (62). In the same manner as described in Fig. 3, the base (2) is formed, and then the side parts (3) are hardened, and at the same time, the shape extending from the base (2) to the tongue (4') which may be deformed is formed. The holding part (5) is hardened and formed, and the upper part (4) is further formed on the side part (3) and the shape-retaining part (5) to form the solid body (7) with the shape-retaining part shown in FIG. Then, the shape-retaining portion (5) is removed from the solid (7) to obtain the solid (1) with the desired shape without deformation.This method also removes the tongue (4) which may be deformed. ') is the shape retention part (5)
A solid body (1
) can be obtained.

Next, to explain the case of forming the solid (41) shown in FIG. 11a, in obtaining the outer shape of the solid (41) based on the optical modeling method shown in FIG. 3 or 4,
As shown in FIG. 5, while hardening and forming the side wall (31),
If the reinforcing shape-retaining portions (32) that vertically connect the opposing side walls (31) are formed at the same time, the side walls (31), which are prone to curve deformation, will support each other via the shape-retaining portions (32). This prevents the occurrence of the curved deformation, and it is possible to obtain a solid body (33) with a shape-retaining portion (32) having an accurate outer shape. In addition, when obtaining a solid body (43) having a rectangular roof overhang shape as shown in Fig. 12a, first, as shown in Figs. 6a and 6b, the lower cylindrical body (
35), a shape-retaining base (36) protruding outward from the lower end of the lower cylinder (35) and the base (3
6) Curing and forming a reinforcing shape-retaining part (38) extending upward from the periphery and continuous to the periphery (37') where there is a risk of deformation of the roof (37), and then forming the roof (37). . As a result, the peripheral edge (37
') extends from the shape-retaining base (36).
38) to prevent deformation of the peripheral edge (37') as shown in FIG. 12b, and form the solid body (39) shown in FIGS. 6a and 6b. After obtaining the solid (39), the shape retaining portion (
38) and the shape-retaining base (36), a solid (43) having a desired shape can be obtained.

As described above, the method of the present invention simultaneously hardens and forms a reinforcing shape-retaining portion that is attached to a location where there is a risk of deformation or that extends between the location and other locations, while simultaneously forming a solid in a desired shape. It is characterized by doing,
As long as it has this feature, it can be applied to various modeling methods based on light irradiation. Therefore, in addition to the modeling method based on light irradiation described in the above embodiments, for example, there is a method in which the upper surface of the photocurable fluid material in the container is slightly raised and a solid is formed by light irradiation from above, and a method in which a solid is formed by light irradiation from above, or a method in which a solid is formed by irradiating light from above, A part of the wall is a transparent plate, a base surface for supporting the cured portion is placed facing the transparent plate, and a solid is formed on the base surface based on light irradiation through the transparent plate while keeping the base surface away from the transparent plate. It can be applied to methods such as In addition, light irradiation in these methods includes, for example, light irradiation using a light guide, light irradiation in which light emitted from multiple light sources intersects at one point, and light irradiation in which the portion of high light intensity in a cross section perpendicular to the optical axis is annular. It is possible to employ methods such as irradiation of light that exhibits a distribution. When using the above light guide,
If the tip of the light guide has a hemispherical shape, there is an advantage that the light can be converged and irradiated so that the light energy is concentrated in a point shape.

Further, by employing light irradiation in which the plurality of lights intersect, the light energy can be nonlinearly increased at the intersection of the lights, and a solid having a desired shape can be quickly formed. By irradiating the light having the above-mentioned annular light intensity distribution, a relatively thick band-shaped solid can be formed with high dimensional accuracy by one scan of the light irradiation, and solids having a desired shape can be formed efficiently. .

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above, according to the method of the present invention, when a solid body having a desired shape is formed by relatively moving the irradiation point of concentrated light energy with respect to a photocurable fluid material, deformation does not occur during the formation process. The solid formation is performed while simultaneously hardening and forming a reinforcing shape-retaining part that is attached to a part where there is a risk of oxidation or extending between the part and other parts, and after the formation, the shape-retaining part is removed as necessary. Therefore, based on the shape retaining portion, it is possible to provide an optical modeling method that can reliably prevent the occurrence of deformation peculiar to the formation of a hardened portion by light irradiation.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a solid formed based on the method of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of a solid with a shape-retaining portion, and Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the method of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing another embodiment of the method of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a solid with a shape-retaining portion obtained based on the method of the present invention, and FIG. 6a FIG. 6b is a perspective view showing a shape-retaining base and a solid body with a shape-retaining portion obtained based on the method of the present invention, FIG. 6b is a longitudinal sectional front view thereof, and FIG. 7(a). (b) is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional method of adding a photocurable fluid material using a support rod and a base plate, FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a method for reliably adding the fluid material, and FIG. Explanatory diagram schematically showing an example of the optical modeling method, No. 10
The figure is an explanatory diagram schematically showing another example of the conventional optical modeling method, Figure 11a is a perspective view showing a solid to be obtained based on the conventional method, and Figure 11b is a solid formed based on the conventional method. FIG. 12a is a perspective view showing another solid to be obtained based on the conventional method, and FIG. 12b is a longitudinal sectional side view showing a solid formed based on the conventional method. (1)... Solid with desired shape (4')... Lower part of upper piece (tongue piece) (5), (32), (38)... Shape retaining part (6
)...Light concentrator (A)...Photocurable fluid material (above) Fig. 11a Fig. 11b Fig. 12? Figure I Figure 12b

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A photocurable fluid material that is hardened by light is placed in a container, and while irradiating light into the fluid material, the light irradiation area is adjusted horizontally and vertically to the container according to the shape of the object to be modeled. In order to prevent deformation of the hardened part during the formation process by relatively moving the hardened part to form a solid in the desired shape, a reinforcing material is attached to a part where deformation is likely to occur or extends between the part and other parts. An optical modeling method characterized in that the solid formation is performed while simultaneously hardening and forming a shape-retaining portion, and after the formation, the shape-retaining portion is removed as necessary.