KR20200044214A - 3D printer HAVING SYSTEM a plurality of nozzle assembly replacement - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a 3D printer and, more specifically, to a multi-nozzle replacement type 3D printer in which a plurality of replaceable nozzle assemblies are provided. A nozzle replacement system has a technical difficulty in that the position of a nozzle must be precisely matched every time the nozzle is replaced, but the 3D printer according to the present specification is capable of precise connection.

Description

3D printer HAVING SYSTEM a plurality of nozzle assembly replacement}

The present invention relates to a 3D printer, and more particularly, to a 3D printer capable of outputting various colors or materials through replacement of a plurality of nozzle assemblies.

With the development of the 3D printer process, production using a 3D printer is being performed in various fields. The 3D printer converts a 3D shape modeled through software such as a CAD system into slice data divided into a plurality of thin cross-section layers, and then uses it to form a plate-like sheet and stacks it to complete the sculpture. A rapid prototyping method has been developed as a method for molding a sheet in the form of a plate.

The rapid prototyping method includes the rapid prototyping method using powders using powders such as gypsum or nylon, the rapid prototyping method using plastic liquid using a liquid (resin) in which a photo-curable plastic is melted, and the molding method using solids made of plastic thread. Can be divided into: As described above, the production method of 3D printers is very diverse, but most of them are FDM (Fused Deposition Method), that is, a solid filament (thermoplastic material, such as plastic) is heated and melted, then compressed in a liquid state to form a layer by layering It is popularly adopted.

1 is a simplified diagram showing the configuration of an FDM-3D printer.

The filament is melted by receiving heat from a heat block before being injected into the nozzle by a motor. Then, the molten filament is injected through a nozzle and printed in a layered manner. These FDM-3D printers have the advantage of being inexpensive and producing faster than other methods.

However, the extruder of the conventional FDM 3D printer has a problem in that it consists of one nozzle in one feeder, and there is a limitation in using various materials and changing various colors.

In order to solve the above problems, a 3D printer with a multi-nozzle has been proposed. However, when the multi-nozzles are interlocked and located on the same plane, there is a problem that a nozzle that does not operate during printing may come into contact with the sculpture and the sculpture may fall off the bed. In addition, when the nozzle stops at the point where the movement path changes and then moves to the next extrusion section, there is a problem that over-extrusion or under-extrusion may occur, resulting in a higher section on the same plane. In addition, when the 3D printer device is driven, the nozzle is heated to melt the filament and is kept in a heated state for a long time, so that residues may flow out of the unused nozzle of the multi-nozzle and cause contamination of the moldings. There is a problem that a step is generated by being extruded in a section, or a residue is hardened at the nozzle inlet, so that the nozzle and the molded object are contacted and a bad molded object may be generated.

In order to solve the above problems, a technique capable of supplying multiple filaments within a single nozzle has been proposed. That is, even if the filaments of different materials or filaments of different colors are controlled, only one nozzle is injected through the control. However, this method also has a problem in that the residue of the filament immediately before replacement of the material or color remains inside the nozzle, thereby deteriorating the surface quality of the output.

Registered Patent Publication No. 10-1641709, 2016.07.15

This specification aims to provide a multi-nozzle replaceable 3D printer.

The present specification is not limited to the above-mentioned problems, and other problems that are not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

A 3D printer according to the present specification for solving the above-described problem includes a plurality of nozzle assemblies; A first connection unit coupled to any one of the plurality of nozzle assemblies; A moving assembly that moves a nozzle assembly connected to the first connection portion by a control signal; And a control unit outputting signals for controlling the plurality of nozzle assemblies, the first connection unit, and the moving assembly, wherein each nozzle assembly includes a filament supply unit; A heating unit that applies heat to melt the filament supplied from the filament supply unit; A nozzle coupled to the heating unit to eject the filament in a molten state; And a second connection part connected to the first connection part.

According to an embodiment of the present specification, the first connection portion and the second connection portion may be connected by magnetic force. In this case, the first connection portion or the second connection portion may be an electromagnet or a zero electromagnet.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the first connection portion and the second connection portion are connected, at least one protrusion formed on the surface of any one of the surfaces of each connection portion and at least one groove formed on the surface of the other connection portion This is formed, and the protrusion and the groove may be formed at positions corresponding to each other when the first connection portion and the second connection portion are connected.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, at least one guide bar formed on any one of the first connection portion and the second connection portion; And at least one or more guide grooves formed in the other connecting portion; and further comprising, the guide bar and the guide groove may be formed at a position corresponding to each other when the first connection portion and the second connection portion are connected.

According to one embodiment of the present specification, the first connecting portion is located in the center of the electromagnet, three projections are formed on the surface around the electromagnet, and two guide grooves are formed above the electromagnet. , In the second connection portion, a magnetic body is positioned at the center, three grooves are formed at positions corresponding to the three protrusions, and two guide bars are formed at positions corresponding to the two guide grooves.

According to one embodiment of the present specification, when the nozzle assembly is replaced, the control unit may output a control signal to the nozzle assembly to be replaced so that the nozzle assembly to be replaced ejects a predetermined amount of molten filament.

Other specific matters of the present invention are included in the detailed description and drawings.

According to an aspect of the present specification, 3D output of various materials or various colors is possible through a multi-nozzle.

According to another aspect of the present specification, the quality of the output is excellent and management is easy using an independent nozzle for each material.

The effects of the present invention are not limited to the effects mentioned above, and other effects not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

1 is a simplified diagram showing the configuration of an FDM-3D printer.
2 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of a 3D printer according to an embodiment of the present specification.
3 is a first perspective view of a 3D printer according to an embodiment of the present specification.
4 is a second perspective view of a 3D printer according to one embodiment of the present specification.
5 is a front view of the first connecting portion.
6 is a reference diagram of the projection and groove according to the present specification.

Advantages and features of the invention disclosed in the present specification, and a method of achieving them will be apparent by referring to embodiments described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the present specification is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but may be implemented in various different forms, and only the embodiments allow the disclosure of the present specification to be complete, and are common in the technical field to which the present specification pertains. It is provided to fully describe the scope of the present specification to a technical person (hereinafter 'the person'), and the scope of rights of the present specification is only defined by the scope of the claims.

The terminology used herein is for describing the embodiments and is not intended to limit the scope of rights of the present specification. In this specification, the singular form also includes the plural form unless otherwise specified in the phrase. As used herein, “comprises” and / or “comprising” does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other components other than the components mentioned. Throughout the specification, the same reference numerals refer to the same components, and “and / or” includes each and every combination of one or more of the mentioned components. Although "first", "second", etc. are used to describe various components, it goes without saying that these components are not limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one component from another component. Therefore, it goes without saying that the first component mentioned below may be the second component within the technical spirit of the present invention.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used in this specification may be used in a sense that can be commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this specification belongs. In addition, terms defined in the commonly used dictionary are not ideally or excessively interpreted unless explicitly defined.

The spatially relative terms “below”, “beneath”, “lower”, “above”, “upper”, etc., are as shown in the figure. It can be used to easily describe a correlation between a component and other components. The spatially relative terms should be understood as terms including different directions of components in use or operation in addition to the directions shown in the drawings. For example, if a component shown in the drawing is flipped over, the component described as "below" or "beneath" the other component will lie "above" the other component. You can. Thus, the exemplary term “below” can include both the directions below and above. Components can also be oriented in different directions, and thus spatially relative terms can be interpreted according to orientation.

Briefly, a 3D printer according to the present specification is a so-called multi-nozzle replaceable 3D printer in which a plurality of nozzle assemblies are provided and the nozzle assembly is replaceable. In the case of the nozzle replacement method, there is a technical difficulty in that the position of the nozzle must be precisely matched every time the nozzle is replaced, but the 3D printer according to the present specification is capable of precise connection. Hereinafter, a 3D printer according to the present specification will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of a 3D printer according to an embodiment of the present specification.

3 is a first perspective view of a 3D printer according to an embodiment of the present specification.

4 is a second perspective view of a 3D printer according to one embodiment of the present specification.

2 to 4, the 3D printer 100 according to the present specification may include a plurality of nozzle assemblies 110, a first connection unit 120, a moving assembly 130, and a control unit 140.

3 and 4, it can be seen that four nozzle assemblies 110-1 to 100-4 are provided. Each nozzle assembly 110 may include a filament supply unit 111, a heating unit 112, a nozzle 113, and a second connection unit 114.

The filament supply unit 111 may supply the solid state filament to the heating unit 112 at a preset speed and amount.

The heating unit 112 may apply heat so that the filament supplied from the filament supply unit 111 is melted.

The nozzle 113 may be coupled to the heating unit 112 to eject the filament in a molten state.

The first connection part 120 may be combined with any one of the plurality of nozzle assemblies. The second connection part 114 may be connected to the first connection part 120. That is, the first connection part 120 may be connected to the nozzle assembly 110 through the second connection part 114 included in each nozzle assembly 110. The 3D printer 100 according to the present specification is a multi-nozzle replacement type 3D printer and requires a configuration for nozzle replacement unlike a general 3D printer. The first connection portion 120 and the second connection portion 114 are configured for coupling and separation when the nozzle is replaced. The coupling method of the first connection portion 120 and the second connection portion 114 will be described in more detail later.

The moving assembly 130 may move the nozzle assembly 110 connected through the first connection unit 120 by a control signal. The moving assembly 130 may include three-way (X-axis, Y-axis, Z-axis) moving means. The nozzle assembly connected to the first connection part 120 may move along the X-axis guide and the Y-axis guide, and the bed may move up and down along the Z-axis guide, and the nozzle assembly moves in the X-axis and Z-axis directions. You can also make the bed move in the Y-axis direction.

The control unit 140 may output signals controlling the plurality of nozzle assemblies 110, the first connection unit 120, and the moving assembly 130.

The filament supply unit 111, the heating unit 112, the nozzle 113, and the moving assembly 130 are components that are basically included in a FDM (Fused Deposition Method) 3D printer. Since it is widely known to, detailed description will be omitted. In addition, the control unit 140 may output a control signal necessary for output to the above-described components to output an object in an FDM manner. Since this is also a technical content well known to those skilled in the art, detailed description will be omitted.

According to an embodiment of the present specification, the first connection portion 120 and the second connection portion 114 may be connected by magnetic force. In this case, the first connection portion 120 or the second connection portion 114 may be an electromagnet or a zero electromagnet. According to the first embodiment, the first connection portion 120 may be an electromagnet or an electromagnet, and the second connection portion 114 may be made of iron. According to the second embodiment, the first connection portion 120 is made of iron, and the second connection portion 114 may be an electromagnet or an electromagnet. According to the third embodiment, both the first connection portion 120 and the second connection portion may be electromagnets or zero electromagnets. The first connection unit 120 may be controlled so that the second connection unit 114 may or may not have magnetic force by a control signal from the control unit 140. When combining the first connection unit 120 and the second connection unit 114, the control unit 140 may output a control signal to apply an attraction force between the first connection unit 120 and the second connection unit 114. You can. When separating the first connection portion 120 and the second connection portion 114, the control unit 140 outputs a control signal so that a repulsive force acts between the first connection portion 120 and the second connection portion 114. You can. On the other hand, when using the electromagnet, it is possible to prevent the nozzle assembly from falling in a situation in which there is no power supply, such as an emergency stop or power supply shutdown.

5 is a front view of the first connecting portion.

6 is a reference diagram of the projection and groove according to the present specification.

Referring to FIG. 6A, it can be seen that the surfaces of the first connection portion 120 and the second connection portion 114 are enlarged.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the first connection portion 120 and the second connection portion 114 are connected, at least one or more protrusions 151 and the other formed on the surface of one connection portion of the surface of each connection portion that comes into contact with each other. At least one groove 152 formed on the surface of the connecting portion may be formed. Preferably, the projection 151 is a ball-shaped mount, the groove 152 may be a V-groove (V-groove).

The protrusion 151 and the groove 152 may be formed at positions corresponding to each other when the first connection portion 120 and the second connection portion 114 are connected. Preferably, as shown in Fig. 5 (b), three protrusions and grooves may be formed at a position forming a vertex of an equilateral triangle based on the center of the connecting portion or at a central position of each side. The protrusion 151 and the groove 152 may serve to assist the first connection portion 120 and the second connection portion 114 to be combined at the correct position.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, at least one guide bar 153 formed on any one of the first connection portion 120 and the second connection portion 114 and at least one guide groove formed on the other connection portion ( 154) may be further included.

Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5 together, it can be seen that the guide bar 153 is formed in the second connection portion 114 and the guide groove 154 is formed in the first connection portion 120. The guide bar 153 and the guide groove 154 are formed at positions corresponding to each other when the first connection part 120 and the second connection part 114 are connected, so that the first connection part 120 and the second It may serve to assist the connection portion 114 to be coupled at the correct position.

Meanwhile, when the nozzle assembly 110 is replaced, the control unit 140 according to the present specification may output a control signal to the replacement target nozzle assembly such that the replacement target nozzle assembly ejects a preset amount of molten filament.

The nozzle assembly 110 needs to be preheated in advance for quick output. That is, the nozzle assembly, which is not used for injection, is also kept in the heating state of the heating unit 112 in order to keep the filament in a molten state. At this time, as the filament in the molten state remaining in the heating part 112 slowly comes out of the nozzle due to thermal expansion, the tip of the hollow nozzle becomes empty. In this state, if you enter the output immediately, the filament will not be output in a certain section. Therefore, the nozzle assembly to be replaced is to fill the empty space in the nozzle by forcing injection as much as it corresponds to the empty space in the heating part 112 immediately before the replacement.

Meanwhile, in FIG. 4, the control unit 140 is represented by a computer, but the control unit 140 may be a computer or a program driven by the computer. The computer program is a C / C ++, C #, JAVA, Python that the computer's processor (CPU) can read through the device interface of the computer in order for the computer to read the program and execute the methods implemented as a program. , Code coded in a computer language such as a machine language. Such code may include functional code related to a function defining functions required to execute the above methods, and control code related to an execution procedure necessary for the processor of the computer to execute the functions according to a predetermined procedure. can do. In addition, the code may further include a memory reference related code to which location (address address) of the internal or external memory of the computer should be referred to additional information or media necessary for the computer's processor to perform the functions. have. Also, when the processor of the computer needs to communicate with any other computer or server in the remote to execute the functions, the code can be used to communicate with any other computer or server in the remote using the communication module of the computer. It may further include a communication-related code for whether to communicate, what information or media to transmit and receive during communication, and the like.

The storage medium refers to a medium that stores data semi-permanently and that can be read by a device, rather than a medium that stores data for a short moment, such as registers, caches, and memory. Specifically, examples of the storage medium include, but are not limited to, ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, and optical data storage device. That is, the program may be stored in various recording media on various servers that the computer can access or various recording media on the user's computer. In addition, the medium may be distributed over a computer system connected through a network to store computer-readable codes in a distributed manner.

The embodiments of the present specification have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but a person skilled in the art to which the present specification pertains may be implemented in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features of the present invention. You will understand. Therefore, it should be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all respects and not restrictive.

100: 3D printer
110: nozzle assembly
111: filament supply unit
112: heating unit
113: nozzle
114: second connection
120: first connection
130: moving assembly
140: control unit
151: projection
152: home
153: Guide bar
154: guide home

Claims (7)

A plurality of nozzle assemblies;
A first connection unit coupled to any one of the plurality of nozzle assemblies;
A moving assembly that moves a nozzle assembly connected to the first connection portion by a control signal; And
3D printer comprising a; control unit for outputting a signal for controlling the plurality of nozzle assembly, the first connection and the moving assembly;
Each nozzle assembly,
Filament supply;
A heating unit that applies heat to melt the filament supplied from the filament supply unit;
A nozzle coupled to the heating unit to eject the filament in a molten state; And
A 3D printer comprising; a second connection part connected to the first connection part. The method according to claim 1,
The first connecting portion and the second connecting portion are connected by magnetic force 3D printer. The method according to claim 2,
The first connection portion or the second connection portion is a 3D printer that is an electromagnet or an electromagnet. The method according to claim 2,
When the first connection portion and the second connection portion are connected, at least one protrusion formed on the surface of one connection portion of the surface of each connection portion and at least one groove formed on the surface of the other connection portion are formed,
The projection and the groove 3D printer formed at a position corresponding to each other when the first connection portion and the second connection portion are connected. The method according to claim 2,
At least one guide bar formed on any one of the first connection portion and the second connection portion; And at least one guide groove formed in the other connection portion.
The guide bar and the guide groove are 3D printers formed at positions corresponding to each other when the first connection portion and the second connection portion are connected. The method according to claim 2,
The first connection portion
The electromagnet is located in the center, and three projections are formed on the surface around the electromagnet, and two guide grooves are formed above the electromagnet,
The second connection part
A 3D printer in which a magnetic body is located at the center, three grooves are formed at positions corresponding to the three protrusions, and two guide bars are formed at positions corresponding to the two guide grooves. The method according to claim 1,
When the nozzle assembly is replaced, the control unit outputs a control signal to the nozzle assembly to be replaced so that the nozzle assembly to be replaced ejects a predetermined amount of molten filament.

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