TWI837527B - Three dimensional printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

A three-dimensional printing method suitable for printing a three-dimensional object with a support material. The three-dimensional printing method includes providing a processing unit to calculate the placement time point of the support material; and performing a printing step, wherein the placement time point corresponds to a position where the tangent angle of the surface of the three-dimensional object is at least less than 90 degrees. The printing step includes printing the part where the tangent angle of the surface of the three-dimensional object is at least greater than or equal to 90 degrees, and the printing is stopped when the printing reaches the placement time point; the supporting material is placed inside the printed part, and part of the supporting material is partially covered by the printed part; and another printing is performed on the uncovered part of the support material.

Description

3D Printing Method

The present invention relates to a printing method, and in particular to a three-dimensional printing method.

3D printing refers to any process of printing three-dimensional objects. In the 3D printing process, support materials are often needed to enhance the structural strength in order to achieve better printing results. However, current support materials often have many limitations in use. For example, support materials are often formed on the outside of the object. This manufacturing method has the problem that the support materials are difficult to remove and unsightly, and the support materials cannot provide internal support for the object. Therefore, dual-head printing is often used to provide internal support for the object. This manufacturing method has the problem of high manufacturing costs due to the expensive machine cost.

The present invention provides a three-dimensional printing method, which can effectively improve the limitations of the use of supporting materials in three-dimensional printing.

The present invention discloses a three-dimensional printing method for printing a three-dimensional object by means of a supporting material. The three-dimensional printing method includes providing a processing unit to calculate the placement time point of the supporting material; and performing a printing step, wherein the placement time point corresponds to a position where the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object is at least less than 90 degrees. The printing step includes printing a portion of the three-dimensional object where the surface tangent angle is at least greater than or equal to 90 degrees, until the printing reaches the placement time point, and then stopping the printing; placing the supporting material inside the printed portion, and part of the supporting material is covered by the printed portion; and performing another printing on the portion where the supporting material is not covered.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when the above-mentioned printing reaches the insertion time point, the processing unit issues a reminder.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned processing unit calculates the origin position of the three-dimensional object and the origin position of the supporting material, so that when the supporting material is placed, it is aligned with the printed part by coinciding with the origin position of the three-dimensional object and the origin position of the supporting material.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned insertion time point is one, and the printing step is executed once accordingly.

In one embodiment of the present invention, there are multiple insertion time points, and the printing step is executed multiple times accordingly.

In one embodiment of the present invention, after obtaining the above-mentioned three-dimensional object, the supporting material is removed.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the material of the above-mentioned support material includes a hot-melt material or a chemically decomposable material.

In one embodiment of the present invention, after obtaining the above-mentioned three-dimensional object, the supporting material is not removed.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the material of the above-mentioned supporting material includes metal material.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the material density of the above-mentioned three-dimensional object is inversely proportional to the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object corresponding to the placement time point.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned support material is inserted mechanically or manually.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned supporting material is a pre-formed solid supporting material.

Based on the above, the three-dimensional printing method of the present invention first calculates the time point of support material placement (corresponding to the position where the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object is at least less than 90 degrees) through the processing unit, and then executes the printing step to place the support material inside the printed part according to the aforementioned placement time point. Under the design of this three-dimensional printing method, it can replace dual-nozzle printing to provide internal support for the object, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost and effectively improving the use restrictions of support materials in three-dimensional printing.

In order to make the above features and advantages of the present invention more clearly understood, the following is a detailed description of the embodiments with the accompanying drawings.

10: Platform

100, 200: three-dimensional objects

101, 102, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206: Partial

101a:Interior

110, 210, 212, 214: Supporting materials

A1, A2: Angle

H: High density end

L: Low density end

P: three-dimensional object origin position

Q: The origin position of three-dimensional objects

S100, S200, S300, S400: Steps

T, T1, T2, T3: insertion time points

θ: angle

Figure 1A is a schematic diagram of the process of a three-dimensional printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1B is a graph showing the relationship between material density and placement time point in a three-dimensional printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figures 2A to 2D are diagrams showing the manufacturing process of printing a three-dimensional object using a three-dimensional printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figures 3A to 3I are diagrams showing the manufacturing process of printing a three-dimensional object using a three-dimensional printing method according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The following disclosures in this specification provide different embodiments or examples to implement different features of various embodiments of the present invention. The following disclosures in this specification describe specific examples of various components and their arrangement for the purpose of simplifying the description. Of course, these specific examples are not intended to limit the present invention. In addition, different examples in the description of the present invention may use repeated reference symbols and/or words. These repeated symbols or words are for the purpose of simplification and clarity, and are not intended to limit the relationship between the various embodiments and/or the described appearance structures.

The following will be accompanied by reference numerals to describe the preferred embodiments of the present invention in detail and with illustrations. Where possible, unnecessary components will be omitted for clarity.

Directional terms used herein (e.g., up, down, right, left, front, back, top, bottom) are used only as a reference to the drawings and are not intended to imply an absolute orientation.

The following is a three-dimensional printing method of an embodiment of the present invention described by means of a process diagram and a manufacturing process diagram. FIG. 1A is a process diagram of a three-dimensional printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1B is a relationship diagram between material density and placement time point of a three-dimensional printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2A to FIG. 2D are manufacturing process diagrams of a three-dimensional object printed by a three-dimensional printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Please refer to FIG. 1A, FIG. 1B, and FIG. 2A to FIG. 2D. In this embodiment, the three-dimensional printing method is suitable for using a support material 110 to assist in printing a three-dimensional object 100, and the three-dimensional printing method includes at least the following steps. First, in step S100, a processing unit (not shown) is provided to calculate the placement time point T of the support material 110, wherein the placement time point corresponds to a position where the surface tangent angle θ of the three-dimensional object 100 is at least less than 90 degrees. In step S200, as shown in FIG. 2A to FIG. 2B, a printing step is performed, wherein the printing step includes printing a portion 101 of the three-dimensional object 100 whose surface tangent angle is at least greater than or equal to 90 degrees, until the printing reaches the placement time point T, and the printing is stopped (refer to FIG. 2A). In step S300, the supporting material 110 is placed in the inner part 101a of the printed part 101, wherein a portion of the supporting material 110 is covered by the printed part 101 (refer to FIG. 2B). The above-mentioned surface tangent angle θ is particularly shown in FIG. 2B for ease of understanding.

Here, the processing unit can be any processor that is suitable for processing and computing functions, as long as the processing unit includes an application that can calculate the placement time point of the support material 110, it belongs to the protection scope of the present invention. In other words, the placement time point calculated by the processing unit means calculating the position of the surface tangent angle θ of the three-dimensional object 100 (as shown in Figure 2B). In addition, all printing steps can be performed on the platform 10, and the inner part 101a is, for example, a hollow space surrounded by the printed part 101 on the platform 10, for placing the support material 110.

Then, in step S400, as shown in FIG. 2B to FIG. 2C, another printing is performed on the uncovered portion of the support material 110 to form another portion 102 connected to the aforementioned printed portion 101, and the three-dimensional object 100 is completed through the above manufacturing (refer to FIG. 2C). Accordingly, the three-dimensional printing method of this embodiment first calculates the placement time point T of the support material 110 by the processing unit (corresponding to the position where the surface tangent angle θ of the three-dimensional object 100 is at least less than 90 degrees), and then performs a printing step to place the support material inside the printed portion 101 according to the aforementioned placement time point T. Under the design of this three-dimensional printing method, it can replace dual-nozzle printing to provide internal support force for the object, thereby reducing manufacturing costs and effectively improving the use restrictions of support materials in three-dimensional printing.

Here, since the probability of the portion of the three-dimensional object having a surface tangent angle of at least 90 degrees being collapsed inward (collapsed downward from the center point) is lower, the present invention selects a surface tangent angle θ of the three-dimensional object 100 that is at least less than 90 degrees as the time point T for inserting the support material. In other words, the present invention selects a position where the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object is at least less than 90 degrees as the boundary position for whether there is a support material inside (corresponding to the boundary position line of the insertion time point T in the figure) to optimize the process design, wherein the surface tangent angle θ is the angle formed by the surface tangent of the three-dimensional object 100 through the interior 101a of the three-dimensional object 100 to the boundary position line. In addition, when the required three-dimensional object is a thin-shell product, the internal collapse using three-dimensional printing will be more obvious, so the three-dimensional printing method of this embodiment will be more advantageous when used on thin-shell products, but the present invention is not limited to this.

In some embodiments, the outline and information of the required three-dimensional object 100 and the supporting material 110 to be placed can be input into the processing unit first, so that the processing unit can calculate the three-dimensional object origin position P and the supporting material origin position Q, so that when placed, the supporting material 110 can be aligned with the printed part 101 by coinciding the three-dimensional object origin position P with the supporting material origin position Q, as shown in FIG. 2B. In this way, the alignment accuracy of the supporting material 110 and the printed part 101 can be improved, and the yield rate of the three-dimensional object 100 produced subsequently can be improved, but the present invention is not limited to this.

In some embodiments, after the origin position P of the three-dimensional object is obtained by the processing unit, a circle, triangle or other suitable and easily recognizable mark or logo can be printed on the platform 10 to more easily identify the origin position P of the three-dimensional object and better improve the alignment accuracy, but the present invention is not limited to this.

In some embodiments, the supporting material 110 may be placed mechanically or manually. For example, when the placement time point T is reached, the supporting material 110 may be picked up mechanically by a robot arm and placed in the interior 101a of the printed portion 101, or may be picked up manually by an operator and placed in the interior 101a of the printed portion 101. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. The mechanical method or the manual method may be operated according to actual design requirements.

In some embodiments, when the printing reaches the insertion time point T, the processing unit issues a reminder. Since the processing unit issues a reminder, the operator can operate multiple machines or execute different work instructions at the same time to improve manufacturing efficiency and reduce the operator's chance of omission, but the present invention is not limited to this.

In some embodiments, the support material 110 is a pre-formed solid support material, so that the support material 110 can be easily taken and placed during the printing process, thereby reducing the processing difficulty of three-dimensional printing, but the present invention is not limited to this.

In some embodiments, the material density of the three-dimensional object 100 is inversely proportional to the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object 100 corresponding to the insertion time point T. In other words, the insertion time point of the support material 110 can be more accurately controlled according to the differentiation of the material density of the three-dimensional object 100. Specifically, when the material density of the three-dimensional object 100 is higher (such as toward the high-density end H in FIG. 1B ), the structure of the printed three-dimensional object 100 itself has a higher support, so the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object 100 corresponding to the insertion time point T (such as the angle A1 in FIG. 1B ) can be allowed to be smaller. On the contrary, when the material density of the three-dimensional object 100 is lower (such as toward the low-density end L in FIG. 1B ), the support of the structure of the printed three-dimensional object 100 itself is relatively low, so the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object 100 corresponding to the insertion time point T must be larger (such as angle A2 in FIG. 1B ) to reduce the probability of internal collapse of the three-dimensional object 100. For example, when the material density of the three-dimensional object 100 is 20%, the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object 100 corresponding to the insertion time point T is between 75 degrees and 85 degrees; when the material density of the three-dimensional object is 40%, the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object corresponding to the insertion time point is between 70 degrees and 80 degrees; when the material density of the three-dimensional object is 60%, the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object corresponding to the insertion time point is between 65 When the material density of the three-dimensional object is 80%, the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object corresponding to the insertion time point is between 60 and 70 degrees; when the material density of the three-dimensional object is 100%, the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object corresponding to the insertion time point is between 55 and 65 degrees, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the material density and corresponding angle of the three-dimensional object 100 can be adjusted according to the actual design requirements. It should be noted that the material density and corresponding angle in FIG. 1B are only schematically shown and do not represent the actual material density and its corresponding angle.

In this embodiment, there is one insertion time point T, and the printing step is executed once correspondingly. That is to say, the three-dimensional object 100 of this embodiment can be divided into two parts (part 101 and part 102 as shown in FIG. 2C) for printing, wherein the part 101 whose surface tangent angle θ is greater than or equal to 90 degrees has no supporting material inserted into the interior 101a during printing, and the part 102 whose surface tangent angle θ is at least less than 90 degrees has supporting material 110 inserted into the interior 101a during printing, but the present invention is not limited thereto. In other embodiments, there may be more than one insertion time point T, and thus the printing step may be executed more than once correspondingly. For example, when there are n insertion time points T, the three-dimensional object will be divided into 2n parts for printing.

Please refer to FIG. 2D . In some embodiments, after obtaining the three-dimensional object 100, the support material 110 can be further selectively removed to enhance the richness and flexibility of the product design. Furthermore, the material of the support material 110 can include a hot melt material (such as wax) or a chemical decomposition material, so the support material 110 can be removed by heating or chemical decomposition. In this way, the probability of damaging the interior of the three-dimensional object 100 can be reduced, and the support material 110 can be easily removed by the above method, improving the problem of the difficulty in removing the support material 110, but the present invention is not limited to this. It should be noted that the present invention does not limit the types of hot melt materials and chemical decomposition materials, and both hot melt materials and chemical decomposition materials can be selected according to the actual design.

It must be noted here that the following embodiments use the component numbers and some contents of the above embodiments, wherein the same or similar numbers are used to represent the same or similar components, and the description of the same technical contents is omitted. For the description of the omitted parts, please refer to the above embodiments, and the following embodiments will not be repeated.

Figures 3A to 3I are process diagrams of printing a three-dimensional object by a three-dimensional printing method of another embodiment of the present invention. The three-dimensional printing method of this embodiment is similar to the three-dimensional printing method of the previous embodiment, except that: the placement time points of this embodiment are multiple, and the printing steps are executed multiple times accordingly, and the specific manufacturing process is described as follows.

Please refer to Figures 3A to 3B. First, the processing unit calculates the placement time points of multiple support materials. Then, the printing step is performed, wherein the printing step includes printing the first part 201 of the three-dimensional object 100 with a surface tangent angle θ at least greater than or equal to 90 degrees on the platform 10, until the printing reaches the first placement time point T1, and then the printing is stopped (refer to Figure 3A). Then, the first support material 210 is placed inside the first part 201 that has been printed, and part of the first support material 210 is covered by the first part 201 (refer to Figure 3B). The above-mentioned surface tangent angle θ is particularly shown in Figure 3B for easy understanding.

Please refer to Figures 3B to 3C. After the first support material 210 is placed, another printing is performed on the uncovered portion of the first support material 210 to form a second portion 202 connected to the aforementioned first portion 201 (compare with Figure 3C). The above process is the execution of the first printing step.

Please refer to Figures 3C to 3I, and repeat the printing steps for multiple times, that is, after forming the portion 202, continue to print the third portion 203 of the surface tangent angle θ of the three-dimensional object 100 on the platform 10, until the printing reaches the second insertion time point T2, and then stop printing, as shown in Figure 3D. Then, the second supporting material 212 is placed inside the printed third portion 203, and part of the second supporting material 212 is covered by the third portion 203, as shown in Figure 3E. Then, another printing is performed on the uncovered portion of the second supporting material 212 to form the fourth portion 204 connected to the aforementioned third portion 203, as shown in Figure 3F. The above process is to perform the second printing step.

Continuing with FIG. 3F, after forming the fourth portion 204, the fifth portion 205 whose surface tangent angle θ is at least greater than or equal to 90 degrees of the three-dimensional object 100 is continuously printed on the platform 10 until the printing reaches the third insertion time point T3, and the printing is stopped, as shown in FIG. 3G. Then, the third supporting material 214 is inserted into the interior of the fifth portion 205 after printing, and part of the third supporting material 214 is covered by the fifth portion 205, as shown in FIG. 3H. Then, another printing is performed on the uncovered portion of the third supporting material 214 to form the sixth portion 206 connected to the aforementioned fifth portion 205, as shown in FIG. 3I. The three-dimensional object 200 is completed by the above manufacturing. Here, the present invention does not limit the number of insertion time points, which can be determined according to the actual outline of the three-dimensional object.

In this embodiment, after obtaining the three-dimensional object 200, the supporting material may not be removed to enhance the structural strength of the three-dimensional object 200. For example, depending on the required structural strength, the first supporting material 210, the second supporting material 212, and the third supporting material 214 may not be removed at all, or the first supporting material 210, the second supporting material 212, and the third supporting material 214 may be partially removed and partially not removed, but the present invention is not limited thereto. In an embodiment not shown, the first supporting material 210, the second supporting material 212, and the third supporting material 214 may also be completely removed.

In some embodiments, the material of the support material includes a metal material, so that the structural strength of the three-dimensional object can be increased without removal, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

It should be noted that the printing described in the above embodiments can be performed in any manner known to those skilled in the art, and the present invention is not limited thereto. As long as the three-dimensional printing method includes calculating the time point of inserting the support material 110 so as to insert the support material into the interior at an appropriate position, it falls within the protection scope of the present invention.

In summary, the three-dimensional printing method of the present invention first calculates the time point of support material placement (corresponding to the position where the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object is at least less than 90 degrees) through the processing unit, and then performs the printing step to place the support material inside the printed part according to the aforementioned placement time point. Under the design of this three-dimensional printing method, it can replace dual-nozzle printing to provide internal support for the object, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost and effectively improving the use restrictions of support materials in three-dimensional printing.

Although the present invention has been disclosed as above by the embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone with ordinary knowledge in the relevant technical field can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the scope defined by the attached patent application.

S100, S200, S300, S400: Steps

Claims (11)

A three-dimensional printing method is used for printing a three-dimensional object by using a support material, wherein the three-dimensional printing method comprises: providing a processing unit to calculate the placement time point of the support material, wherein the placement time point corresponds to a position where the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object is at least less than 90 degrees, wherein the surface tangent angle is the angle formed by the surface tangent of the three-dimensional object passing through the interior of the three-dimensional object to the boundary position line corresponding to the placement time point; and executing a printing step, wherein the printing step comprises: printing the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object at least greater than or equal to 90 degrees. The method comprises the steps of: placing the supporting material inside the printed part, wherein a part of the supporting material is covered by the printed part, wherein the inside is a hollow space surrounded by the printed part; and performing another print on the part where the supporting material is not covered, wherein the processing unit calculates the origin position of the three-dimensional object and the origin position of the supporting material, so that when the supporting material is placed, the supporting material is aligned with the printed part by coinciding the origin position of the three-dimensional object with the origin position of the supporting material. A three-dimensional printing method as described in claim 1, wherein when the printing reaches the insertion time point, the processing unit issues a reminder. A three-dimensional printing method as described in claim 1, wherein the insertion time point is one, and the printing step is executed once accordingly. A three-dimensional printing method as described in claim 1, wherein the insertion time points are multiple, and the printing step is executed multiple times accordingly. A three-dimensional printing method as described in claim 1, wherein after obtaining the three-dimensional object, the supporting material is removed. A three-dimensional printing method as described in claim 5, wherein the material of the support material includes a hot-melt material or a chemically decomposable material. A three-dimensional printing method as described in claim 1, wherein after obtaining the three-dimensional object, the supporting material is not removed. A three-dimensional printing method as described in claim 7, wherein the material of the supporting material includes a metal material. A three-dimensional printing method as described in claim 1, wherein the material density of the three-dimensional object is inversely proportional to the surface tangent angle of the three-dimensional object. A three-dimensional printing method as described in claim 1, wherein the support material is placed mechanically or manually. A three-dimensional printing method as described in claim 1, wherein the supporting material is a pre-formed solid supporting material.

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