JPH02307731A - Three-dimensional molding apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the load of maintenance by preventing the clogging of an ink jet head and to obtain a molded product excellent in dimensional accuracy having no dripping or the like by partially curing the liquid droplets of a photo-setting resin emitted from the ink jet head during flight and subsequently laminating and curing the same. CONSTITUTION:The low viscosity liquid droplets of a photo-setting resin emitted from an ink jet head are cured to an arbitrary degree by a resin curing irradiation means 33 and subsequently laminated to a molding stage 31 at every one layer and irradiated with the light from a light source 32 to be perfectly cured and fixed. A molded product is formed by repeating this process. The irradiation means 33 is constituted so as to perform multistage irradiation using a glass fiber.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a three-dimensional molding device, and particularly a three-dimensional molding device that ejects photocurable resin using an inkjet method, cures it by light irradiation, and laminates the same. This invention relates to a three-dimensional molding apparatus for producing a three-dimensional molded product.

[Background of the invention and conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there exists an apparatus for performing three-dimensional molding, as shown in FIG.

A three-dimensional model created with CAD is sliced into many thin cross-sections. According to this data, the control computer 111 operates the xY-direction movement control device 112 and the Z-direction movement control device 113, and simultaneously operates the laser light source 114.
A laser beam is irradiated to scan the liquid surface 117 of the photocurable resin 116 in the resin tank 115, and a cross-sectional shape based on information from the control computer 111 is drawn.

On the table 118 in the tank 115, the photocurable resin 116 that is irradiated with the laser beam changes from a liquid to a solid and hardens. This creates a partial cross-section. The control computer 111 lowers the table 118 by a distance corresponding to the thickness of one layer, and then, following the first layer formed, a new layer is created by the same operation as described above. The cured product 119 is formed by stacking a number of thin cross-sectional bodies continuously produced in this way.

However, this type of equipment uses a structure in which the photocurable resin is in liquid form in a tank and is cured by irradiating it with a laser beam, so it is only possible to mold with one type of photocurable resin. I can't. If you try to change to a different type or color of photocurable resin during molding, you will need to replace all the photocurable resin in the tank and perform operations such as cleaning.
It takes more time and money than necessary. It is also very difficult to control the polymerization of the resin. Therefore, the three-dimensional molding apparatus shown in FIG. 3 has been devised to mold molded products made of different types of resins, molded products of multiple colors, and molded products of arbitrary mixed colors. This type of three-dimensional molding apparatus basically includes a host computer 11 that forms a three-dimensional model and sends out data, a drive control section 12 that takes in data from the host computer 11 and controls each part according to the data. The drive control section 1
2, an XY direction movement control device 13, a turning movement control device 14, and a Z direction movement control device 15, inkjet heads 16 to 21, and resin tanks 22 to 24 for controlling the jetting direction of the photocurable resin according to control signals from 2. , pump 2
5 to 30, a molding stage 31, and a resin curing light a32.

To explain the operation of this device, a three-dimensional model formed by the host computer 11 is sliced into a number of thin cross-sections, each cross-section is converted into coordinate data, and in the case of a color three-dimensional model, it is simultaneously sliced. Colors are converted into color data according to the model colors. When this data is transferred to the drive control unit 12, xY3
The one-way movement control device 13, the rotation movement control word 'II 14, and the Z-direction movement control device 15 are activated, and the inkjet heads 16 to 21 and the molding stage 31 located above these move to predetermined positions. After the movement, the inkjet heads 16 and 21, or 17 and 20, or 18 are controlled from the host computer 11 via the drive control unit 12.
and 21, or 16.17.20 and 21, or 17.18.19 and 20, or all inkjet heads, and the photocurable resin contained in the corresponding tanks 22 to 24 is pumped through the pump. It is discharged. The tanks 22 to 24 contain photosensitive resins of different types or colors, respectively, and as a result, it is possible to mold a molded article made of a plurality of types of resin and to give it any desired color. The photocurable resin droplets discharged from the inkjet head are stacked layer by layer on the molding stage 31, and then the resin is cured by irradiation with the light source 32. Inkjet head 16-1 in the lower position
By repeating the above-described ejection from the inkjet heads 8 and the side inkjet heads 19 to 21, a molded product made of various kinds of resins, or a molded product of multiple colors or any mixed color is formed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in this three-dimensional molding apparatus, in order to discharge the photosensitive resin as small droplets from the inkjet head, the resin needs to have a low viscosity.

This is because if the viscosity is high, the head will become clogged.

On the other hand, when molding with low-viscosity photosensitive resins, sagging may occur during photocuring after lamination, or resins and colors may mix at the boundaries between different resin types or where the colors change. There is a problem with this.

[Means for solving problems]

Therefore, the present invention was created in order to solve the above problems, and it is possible to eject low-viscosity photosensitive resin droplets,
Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tertiary photoforming apparatus that does not cause sagging during photocuring after lamination and does not mix resin components or colors in an integrally molded product at a boundary portion.

In order to achieve this objective, the three-dimensional molding apparatus of the present invention has the following features:
An inkjet head that discharges photocurable resin as small droplets, a stage on which the photocurable resin discharged from the inkjet head is laminated, a light source that irradiates the laminated resin with light, and a The inkjet head is equipped with a control means for relatively changing the ejection direction, and the inkjet head is used to perform three-dimensional molding by laminating photocurable resin in accordance with externally inputted information on the cross-sectional slice of the molded product. Further, an irradiation means is provided for irradiating the flight path of the droplet with light so as to irradiate the photocurable resin droplet ejected from the inkjet head with light while the droplet is in flight.

[Effect]

The three-dimensional molding apparatus of the present invention having the above configuration discharges photocurable resin droplets from an insulator jet head toward a stage according to externally input data, and irradiates the droplets with light while they are in flight. The partially cured droplets are stacked on the stage and further cured by irradiation with light, and a three-dimensional molded article is formed by repeating this process.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, the photocurable resin droplets ejected from the inkjet head are partially cured while in flight, and then layered and cured, making it possible to prevent clogging of the inkjet head and reduce maintenance costs. At the same time, a molded product with excellent dimensional accuracy without sag etc. can be obtained. In particular, when resins of multiple colors are used, mixing is less likely to occur at boundary areas where resin types or colors are changed, and resin molded products with clear color separation can be obtained.

[Example〕 - The present invention will be explained in detail below based on the drawings.

The three-dimensional molding apparatus of the present invention basically has the components of the inkjet type three-dimensional molding apparatus explained above and in FIG. In this way, an irradiation means 33 is provided which irradiates the flight path of the droplet with light so as to irradiate the photocurable resin droplet discharged from the inkjet head with light while the droplet is in flight. This irradiation means 33 has, for example, a plurality of optical fibers arranged so that their tips face the forward positions of the nozzle tips of the respective inkjet heads 16 to 21. A light source that emits light of a wavelength matching the photocuring sensitivity of the photocurable resin droplets to be discharged is naturally arranged.

The operation of the three-dimensional molding apparatus of the present invention is generally the same as that of the inkjet three-dimensional molding apparatus described above, but the low-viscosity photocurable resin droplets discharged from the inkjet head are irradiated for resin curing. After being cured to a desired degree by the means 33, they are laminated layer by layer on the molding stage 31 and completely cured and fixed by light irradiation from the light source 32. A molded article is formed by repeating this process. The irradiation means 33 uses glass fiber or the like,
It is conceivable to configure the irradiation in multiple stages.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments detailed above, and various changes can be made without departing from the spirit thereof.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a partially enlarged view of the ink shed head and stage vicinity of the device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a conventional three-dimensional molding device, and Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a conventional inkjet three-dimensional molding device. be. 16, 17. '18.19.20.21... Inkjet head 31... Stage 32... Light source 33... Irradiation means

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] An inkjet head that discharges a photocurable resin as small droplets; a stage on which the photocurable resin discharged from the inkjet head is laminated; a light source that irradiates the laminated resin with light; A control means for relatively changing the ejection direction of the resin during ejection, and using the inkjet head, the photocurable resin is laminated to form a three-dimensional structure according to externally inputted information on the cross-sectional slice of the molded product. A three-dimensional molding apparatus that performs molding, comprising: an irradiation unit that irradiates a flight path of photocurable resin droplets discharged from the inkjet head with light.