KR101956077B1 - 3d printing system and error detect and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a 3D printing system capable of inspecting whether a product manufactured in a 3D printing process has failed or not, and an error checking and control method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a 3D printer for outputting an output, a photographing module for photographing the output, And a control terminal for generating design information of the designed output, controlling the driving of the 3D printer based on the generated design information, and checking whether an error has occurred by using the image information photographed by the photographing module, It is possible to check whether or not an output error has occurred by using the photographing module and to remove an error part by using an error removing module when an error occurs.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a 3D printing system and an error checking and control method thereof,

The present invention relates to a three-dimensional (3D) printing system and an error checking and control method thereof, and more particularly, to a 3D printing system for checking whether an error has occurred in a 3D printing process, To a 3D printing system and its error checking and control method.

A 3D printer is a manufacturing technique for producing a continuous output of material by outputting a continuous layer of material like a 2D printer and stacking it, and various types of 3D printers are being developed depending on the application and the stacking method.

The basic principle of 3D printing manufacturing technology is to gradually form products by laminated manufacturing method of synthetic resin (plastic), metallic powder, wood, rubber, biomaterials and polymer materials according to CAD design.

In other words, 3D printing is a manufacturing technology that produces 3D model data such as CAD design files, industrial and medical scanners, and video games, as if it were printed on real models, prototype parts and tools.

As 3D printing technology consumes fewer materials and shortens the supply chain cycle, it can reduce the energy consumption of electricity and fossil fuels used in product manufacturing.

In addition, it is possible to manufacture a newly designed three-dimensional object which can not be created by past manufacturing techniques.

These 3D printing technologies are based on FDM (solid-based, resin extrusion), SLS (powder-based rapid prototyping) and DLP, SLA (liquid-based, photo-curable resin molding) Can be distinguished.

For example, in the following Patent Document 1, there is disclosed a photo-curing 3D printer technology according to the prior art.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2016-0081354 (published on July 8, 2016) Korea Patent Registration No. 10-1593219 (Announcement on Feb. 11, 2016)

However, in the 3D printer according to the prior art, it is checked whether or not an error occurs in a 3D printing process in which a product is shaped by sequentially laminating and curing synthetic resin (plastic), metallic powder, wood, rubber, biomaterial, There is no way you can.

That is, a product manufactured in a 3D printer may fail to meet the standard value, which is a standard of quality such as shape and dimensions due to errors in the 3D printing process.

As described above, in the 3D printer according to the related art, when defects due to errors occur in the 3D printing process, economical and time-consuming costs are increased because the products are discarded and the work is performed from the beginning.

Therefore, it is required to develop a technology to check whether an error occurs in the 3D printing process and to perform a 3D printing operation in an accurate shape according to a design drawing when an error occurs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a 3D printing system capable of inspecting whether a product manufactured in a 3D printing process has failed or not, and an error checking and control method thereof.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a 3D printing system and an error checking and control method thereof, which can remove an error portion and perform a remaining portion of an operation in a 3D printing process.

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In order to achieve the above object, a 3D printing system according to the present invention includes a 3D printer for outputting an output, a photographing module for photographing the output, design information of an output product designed and designed, And a control terminal for controlling the driving of the 3D printer and checking whether an error has occurred using the image information photographed by the photographing module.

According to the present invention, when an error occurs in which the quality of the output including the shape and dimensions of the printed output of the control terminal is less than a preset reference value, an error And a removal module.

The control terminal includes a designing unit for designing an output using input information of a user and generating design information of the designed output, a comparing unit comparing the image information photographed by the photographing module with design information, An error information generation unit for generating error shape information and a control signal for determining whether an error has occurred based on the comparison result of the comparison unit and generating a control signal for controlling driving of the 3D printer and the error removal module according to design information or error shape information And a control unit.

Wherein the photographing module includes a plurality of cameras for photographing the 3D image of the output, and the control terminal comprises: a storage unit for storing programs and various information for driving each device; An image synthesizing unit for synthesizing images photographed by a plurality of cameras provided in the photographing module to form a 3D image of the output, and a display unit for displaying a driving state of each device and an output shape photographed by the photographing module .

The control unit controls the drive of the display unit to indicate the occurrence of an error on the screen when an error occurs in the output, and controls the driving of the communication unit to notify a preset administrator's mobile terminal of the occurrence of an error.

In order to achieve the above object, there is provided a method for checking and controlling errors in a 3D printing system, the method comprising the steps of: (a) designing an output item at a control terminal and generating design information of the output item; (b) Driving the 3D printer based on the generated design information, outputting the output, and performing 3D printing; (c) photographing the printout in the photographing module; and (d) And checking whether or not an error has occurred in the output.

The present invention is characterized by further comprising the step of (e) driving the error elimination module to remove an error occurrence part if an error occurs in the output of the step (d).

In the step (c), the photographing module photographs the 3D image of the output using a plurality of cameras spaced apart from the output, and in the step (d), the image synthesizing unit of the control terminal photographs And the 3D image of the output is formed.

(D1) comparing the image information photographed by the photographing module with the design information using the comparison unit of the control terminal, (d2) determining whether an error has occurred based on the comparison result of the comparison unit in the control unit (D3) a step of displaying an error occurrence on the display unit when an error occurs in the output, and notifying a preset portable terminal of the administrator of an error occurrence through the communication unit.

Wherein the error information generation unit of the control terminal generates the shape information of the erroneous part based on the comparison result of the comparison unit, (e2) calculates the ratio of the error part in the entire volume of the output, (E3) removing the entire output and restarting the 3D printing operation if the calculated ratio is greater than or equal to a preset limit value, and (e4) if the calculated ratio is less than a predetermined threshold, removing only the error portion, And performing 3D printing by outputting.

As described above, according to the 3D printing system and its error checking and control method according to the present invention, it is possible to check whether or not an error has occurred in an output product using the photographing module, and to remove an error part using an error removing module have.

Thus, according to the present invention, the 3D printing operation can be resumed after removing only the error portion of the printout, thereby shortening the working time and reducing the manufacturing cost by reducing the amount of material used for manufacturing the product Loses.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the working efficiency by selecting to eliminate the entire printed matter or to remove only the error part according to the error occurrence rate of the output article.

1 is a block diagram of a 3D printing system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a configuration diagram of an SLA-based 3D printer and a photographing module,
FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating steps of an error checking and control method of a 3D printing system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, a 3D printing system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention and its error checking and control method will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a 3D printing system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, description will be made using an FDM-type 3D printer in which solid, liquid, and powder materials are stacked and cured. Of course, the present invention is not limited to this, and it should be noted that the present invention can be applied to various 3D printing systems such as SLS, DLP, and SLA.

Hereinafter, terms indicating directions such as 'left', 'right', 'forward', 'rearward', 'upward' and 'downward' refer to respective directions based on the states shown in the respective drawings define.

As shown in FIG. 1, the 3D printing system 10 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a 3D printer 20 (hereinafter, referred to as 'printer') for outputting an output, a photographing module 30 designates the output, generates design information of the designed output, controls driving of the printer 20 based on the generated design information, and checks whether an error has occurred by using the image information photographed by the photographing module 30 And a control terminal 40 for controlling the control terminal 40.

In the 3D printing system 10 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, when an error less than a reference value which is a reference of quality such as the shape, dimensions, And an error removal module 50 for removing an error occurrence part in the output according to the control signal of the control part 50. [

The printer 20 receives a control signal from the control terminal 40 in a wired or wireless communication manner and is driven in accordance with the received control signal to output a 3D output.

Such a printer 20 may be provided in other types of 3D printers such as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Digital Light Processing (DLP), Stereolithography (SLA), and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

The FDM method is a method of forming a shape by laminating thermally melted plastic layers one by one on a laminated board, and is often used by a person who uses an individual or manufactures a prototype, and is released at a relatively low price compared to other methods .

The DLP method uses a light source of a DLP projector. The UV light (UV) emitted from a light source is applied to a UV curable resin to cure the UV curable resin, and the UV curable resin is cured The shape is completed.

The SLA system is a laser printing system. It prints the UV resin material, and if it shoots the laser which hardens the UV resin, it moves at high speed and stacks it one by one and prints it.

The SLS method is a powder sintering method in which a powdered material is partially melted and printed by a laser. Unlike other printing methods, it can be printed to metal, and can be used immediately for manufacturing high quality products.

The photographing module 30 photographs a process of outputting an output from the printer 20 and a process of removing an error part from the error elimination module 50.

The photographing module 30 may be provided by a single camera, but may be provided in plural so as to photograph an accurate 3D shape of the output.

For example, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an SLA 3D printer and a photographing module.

2, the SLA-based 3D printer 20 includes a light source 22 that emits light to a 3D printing material 10 capable of full color output filled in a water tank 21 and a light source 22 that emits light in response to light emitted from the light source 22 A building platform 23 that moves outside the water tub 21, for example, upward, and a mirror 24 that reflects the laser irradiated from the light source 22 in accordance with the shape of the output, whenever the 3D printed output is further accumulated .

The photographing module 30 may include first and second cameras 31 and 32 installed symmetrically with respect to the output to photograph the entire output.

Of course, the present invention is not limited thereto, and may be modified to include three or more cameras.

1, the error remover module 50 receives a control signal from the control terminal 40 in a wired or wireless communication manner, and is driven according to the received control signal to remove an error portion of the output.

For example, the error elimination module 50 may be provided as a grinder 51 that grinds and removes an error portion by rotating the grindstone using the rotational force of a driving motor driven according to a control signal.

The grinder 51 can freely move in the X, Y, and Z axis directions by the drive module 52 driven in accordance with the control signal of the control terminal 40, thereby eliminating the error portion.

Of course, the present invention is not necessarily limited to this, and may be modified to apply a combination of tools or a plurality of tools for performing different types of machining operations, such as cutters, drills, etc., to the error elimination module 50.

The control terminal 40 designs the output, generates design information of the designed output, and controls the operation of the printer 20 based on the generated design information.

Then, the control terminal 40 compares the shape photographed by the photographing module 30 with the design information to check whether or not an error has occurred, and if an error has occurred as a result of the inspection, the error removal module 50 .

In addition, the control terminal 40 compares the design information with the shape of the output object from which the error has been eliminated, and controls the output operation of the output based on the comparison result.

To this end, the control terminal 40 includes a design section 41 for designing an output using input information of a user and generating design information of a designed output, a comparison section for comparing the image information photographed by the photographing module 30 with design information, Based on the comparison result of the error information generation unit 43 and the comparison unit 42 that generate the error shape information based on the comparison result of the comparison unit 42 and the comparison unit 42, And a control unit 44 for generating a control signal for controlling the operation of the printer 20 and the error removal module 50 according to the error shape information.

The control terminal 40 includes a storage section 45 for storing a program for driving the control terminal 40, the printer 20, the photographing module 30 and the error elimination module 50, various information, a printer 20 A communication unit 46 for transmitting and receiving signals to and from the photographing module 30 and the error elimination module 50 in a wired or wireless communication manner and a plurality of cameras 31 and 32 provided in the photographing module 30, An image synthesizing unit 47 for synthesizing a 3D image of the output, and a display unit 48 for displaying the driving state of each device and the shape of the output image photographed by the photographing module 30.

The error information generation unit 43 generates shape information of a portion where an error has occurred, that is, error shape information according to the comparison result of the comparison unit 42, and the control unit 44 calculates an error portion based on the generated error shape information It is possible to control the driving of the error remover module 50 to remove the error.

If the comparison result of the comparison result of the comparison unit 42 indicates that an error has occurred, the control unit 44 displays the fact of occurrence of an error on the screen and displays the error on the display unit 48 to notify the preset portable terminal 60 of the administrator of the error. And the communication section 46 in accordance with the present invention.

Next, referring to FIG. 3, an error checking and control method of the 3D printing system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the error checking and control method of the 3D printing system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

In step S10 of FIG. 3, the control terminal 40 designs the output using the command word and data input from the manager, generates the design information of the designed output, and stores the design information in the storage unit 45. FIG.

In step S12, the control unit 44 of the control terminal 40 generates a control signal for controlling the operation of the printer 30 to output an output according to the design information.

At this time, the first and second cameras 31 and 32 provided in the photographing module 30 respectively photograph the output and transmit the photographed image information to the control terminal 40 (S14).

Then, the video synthesis unit 47 of the control terminal 40 synthesizes the images transmitted from the first and second cameras 31 and 32 to form 3D images of the output.

In step S16, the comparator 42 compares the image information of the output with the design information, and the controller 44 checks whether or not an error has occurred in the output based on the comparison result of the comparator.

If it is determined in step S16 that no error has occurred in the printout, the control unit 44 controls the process to proceed to step S30.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S16 that there is an error below the reference value, which is a reference of the quality of the output, Information.

At this time, the control unit 44 drives the display unit 48 to display the fact that an error has occurred on the screen, and controls the communication unit 46 to notify the preset portable terminal 60 of the error occurrence.

The controller 44 calculates an error occurrence rate at which the error occurred using the error shape information generated by the error information generator 43, and checks whether the error occurrence rate is equal to or greater than a preset threshold (S18).

That is, compared with the case where the error occurrence part of the output is removed and reused, the present invention is advantageous in that, in order to cope with the case where it is possible to save time and cost economically, Can be set.

For example, the error rate is calculated as (the volume of the error portion / the total volume of the output) * 100, and the limit value may be set to various values, for example, 30% to 70% depending on the experiment.

If it is determined in step S18 that the error rate is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the control terminal 40 controls the operation of the error removal module 50 to remove the entire output (S20). In step S12, Lt; / RTI >

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S18 that the error occurrence rate is less than the threshold value, the control terminal 44 controls the operation of the error removal module 50 to remove only the error part based on the error shape information (S22).

At this time, the photographing module 30 photographs the error removal process (S24), and the control terminal 40 updates the design information using the photographed image (S26). Based on the updated design information, And controls driving of the printer 30 to output the material to the output material and perform 3D printing (S28).

In step S30, the control terminal 40 checks whether or not the 3D printing operation is completed, and controls the steps S14 to S30 to be repeated until the 3D printing operation is completed.

When the 3D printing operation is completed in step S30, the control terminal 40 stops driving each device and terminates the process.

Through the process as described above, the present invention can check whether or not an error has occurred in the output using the photographing module, and remove the error portion using the error removing module when an error occurs.

Accordingly, the present invention can reduce the manufacturing cost by reducing the amount of material used in the manufacture of the product, by shortening the operation time by resuming the 3D printing operation after removing only the error portion of the output.

Although the invention made by the present inventors has been described concretely with reference to the above embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and it goes without saying that various changes can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

The present invention is applied to a technology for checking whether or not an error occurs in an output product by using a photographing module in 3D printing process and for removing an error part by using an error removing module when an error occurs.

10: 3D printing system 20: 3D printer
21: water tank 22: light source
23: building platform 24: mirror
30: photographing module 31, 32: first and second cameras
40: control terminal 41: design section
42: comparator 43: error information generator
44: control unit 45:
46: communication unit 47:
48: Display unit 50: Error removal module
60:

Claims (10)

A 3D printer that prints output,
A photographing module for photographing the output,
A control terminal for designing the output, generating design information of the designed output, controlling the driving of the 3D printer based on the generated design information, and checking whether an error has occurred by using the image information photographed by the photographing module;
And an error removal module for removing an error occurrence part in the output according to a control signal of the control terminal when an error occurs in the quality of the output including the shape and dimensions of the output result of the control terminal, ≪ / RTI &
The control terminal captures an error removing process using the photographing module while performing the error removing process, updates the design information using the photographed image, and updates the design information based on the updated design information, And outputs the 3D printing data to the 3D printing system. delete The method of claim 1,
A design section for designing the output using user input information and generating design information of the designed output,
A comparison unit for comparing the image information photographed by the photographing module with design information,
An error information generation unit for generating error shape information based on the comparison result of the comparison unit;
And a control unit for determining whether an error has occurred based on the comparison result of the comparison unit and generating a control signal for controlling the operation of the 3D printer and the error removal module according to the design information or the error shape information. . 4. The method of claim 3,
Wherein the photographing module includes a plurality of cameras for photographing a 3D image of the output,
The control terminal includes a storage unit for storing programs and various information for driving each device,
A communication unit for transmitting and receiving signals to and from the devices in a wired or wireless communication manner,
An image synthesizer for synthesizing images photographed by a plurality of cameras provided in the photographing module to form a 3D image of the output;
Further comprising a display unit for displaying a driving state of each device and an output shape photographed by the photographing module. 5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the control unit controls driving of the display unit to display an error occurrence on a screen when an error occurs in the output,
And controls the driving of the communication unit to notify a preset portable terminal of the error occurrence occurrence. (a) designing an output item at a control terminal and generating design information of the output item,
(b) driving the 3D printer based on the generated design information, outputting the output, and performing 3D printing,
(c) photographing the output from the photographing module,
(d) comparing the image information photographed by the control terminal with the design information to check whether an output error has occurred and
(e) driving the error removal module to remove an error occurrence portion if an error occurs in the output of the step (d)
The step (e) includes the steps of (e1) generating shape information of an error part in the error information generation unit of the control terminal,
(e2) calculating a ratio of the error portion in the total volume of the output,
(e3) if the calculated ratio is greater than or equal to a preset limit value, removing the entire output and restarting the 3D printing operation
(e4) if the calculated ratio is less than a preset limit value, removing only the error portion and outputting the remaining portion to perform 3D printing,
During the error removal process, the photographing module photographs an error removal process,
Wherein the control terminal updates the design information using the photographed image and controls the 3D printing so as to output the material to the output object from which the error has been eliminated based on the updated design information. Way. delete The method of claim 6,
In the step (c), the photographing module photographs the 3D image of the output using a plurality of cameras spaced around the output,
Wherein the image combining unit of the control terminal combines images photographed by the plurality of cameras to form a 3D image of the output in the step (d). 9. The method of claim 8, wherein step (d)
(d1) comparing the image information photographed by the photographing module with the design information using the comparison unit of the control terminal,
(d2) judging whether or not an error has occurred on the basis of a comparison result of the comparing unit in the control unit
(d3) a step of displaying an error occurrence on the display unit at the time of occurrence of an error of the output, and notifying a preset portable terminal of the administrator of an error occurrence through the communication unit; Control method. delete

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