阅读说明：本技术 一种3d打印金属成型装置及方法 (3D printing metal forming device and method ) 是由 刘鹏 *** 杜霆 胡建宇 于 2019-12-10 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开一种3D打印金属成型装置,包括粉末库、料架、注射打印喷头、烧结炉和出料平台,粉末库的顶部设置粉末轧辊,粉末轧辊能够沿料架滚动并将金属粉末铺至料架上,料架的底部分别设置升降平台,升降平台能够带动料架上下运动；注射打印喷头能够向料架上喷射液体粘结剂,烧结炉能够对金属成型件进行加热烧结。本发明还提供一种3D打印金属成型方法,粉末轧辊在粉末库上滚动,金属粉末粘在粉末轧辊的表面,粉末轧辊在料架上滚动,将金属粉末铺设在料架上,注射打印喷头向金属粉末喷出液体粘结剂,粘合金属粉末材料层,重复上述步骤直至金属制件成型,将金属成型件送入烧结炉中,金属成型件在烧结炉中去除粘结剂,并烧结成型。(The invention discloses a 3D printing metal forming device which comprises a powder warehouse, a material rack, an injection printing spray head, a sintering furnace and a discharging platform, wherein a powder roller is arranged at the top of the powder warehouse, the powder roller can roll along the material rack and spread metal powder on the material rack, lifting platforms are respectively arranged at the bottoms of the material racks, and the lifting platforms can drive the material rack to move up and down; the injection printing nozzle can spray liquid binder on the work or material rest, and the fritting furnace can heat the sintering to the metal forming part. The invention also provides a 3D printing metal forming method, wherein a powder roller rolls on a powder storage, metal powder is adhered to the surface of the powder roller, the powder roller rolls on a material rack, the metal powder is laid on the material rack, a liquid adhesive is sprayed to the metal powder by an injection printing spray head to adhere a metal powder material layer, the steps are repeated until a metal product is formed, the metal formed part is sent into a sintering furnace, the adhesive is removed from the metal formed part in the sintering furnace, and the metal formed part is sintered and formed.)

1. The utility model provides a 3D prints metal forming device which characterized in that: the sintering furnace comprises a powder warehouse, a material rack, an injection printing spray head, a sintering furnace and a discharging platform, wherein the powder warehouse can contain metal powder, a powder roller is arranged at the top of the powder warehouse, the powder roller can roll along the material rack and spread the metal powder on the material rack, the material rack is made of high-temperature-resistant materials, lifting platforms are respectively arranged at the bottoms of the material racks, and the lifting platforms can drive the material rack to move up and down; the injection printing nozzle is connected with a liquid binder box, the injection printing nozzle can spray liquid binder on the material frame, the sintering furnace can heat and sinter metal formed parts, a heating element is arranged in the sintering furnace, and the sintering furnace is connected with the discharging platform.

2. The 3D printed metal forming device of claim 1, wherein: the powder recovery device is further arranged and can recover metal powder on the material rack.

3. The 3D printed metal forming device of claim 1, wherein: the sintering furnace is connected with an air inlet system and a vacuum system, the air inlet system comprises an air inlet, the air inlet is communicated with an inner cavity of the sintering furnace, and an air inlet valve is arranged between the air inlet and the sintering furnace; the vacuum system comprises a vacuum pump and a valve, the vacuum pump can vacuumize the sintering furnace, and the valve is arranged between the vacuum pump and the sintering furnace.

4. The 3D printed metal forming device of claim 1, wherein: the work or material rest is open-ended container in the top, and is a plurality of the work or material rest can superpose and place, the degree of depth of work or material rest is than the height of metal forming part big.

5. The 3D printed metal forming device of claim 1, wherein: the metal forming part loading and unloading device comprises a rack and a lifting platform, and is characterized by further comprising a manipulator, wherein the manipulator is arranged between the rack and the sintering furnace, the rack can be placed on the lifting platform by the manipulator, and a metal forming part can be fed into the sintering furnace or taken out of the sintering furnace by the manipulator.

6. The 3D printed metal forming device of claim 1, wherein: the sintering furnace is of a cuboid structure and is provided with a top gate and a side gate, the top gate is arranged at the top of the sintering furnace, and the side gate is arranged on the side surface of the sintering furnace; the sintering furnace is further connected with a push rod mechanism, and the push rod mechanism can push the metal forming part in the sintering furnace.

7. The 3D printed metal forming device of claim 6, wherein: and a conveying mechanism is arranged between the lifting platform and the sintering furnace, and can convey the metal forming part and the material rack into the sintering furnace.

8. The 3D printed metal forming device of claim 1, wherein: the heating element is arranged on the side wall of the sintering furnace.

9. A 3D printed metal forming method using the 3D printed metal forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, comprising the steps of:

the method comprises the following steps that firstly, a powder roller rolls on a powder storage, metal powder is adhered to the surface of the powder roller, the powder roller rolls on a material rack, the metal powder is laid on the material rack, and an injection printing nozzle sprays liquid adhesive to the metal powder on the material rack to adhere a metal powder material layer;

step two, after the first layer of spraying is finished, the powder roller is reset, the lifting platform drives the material rack to descend, and the operation of the step one is repeated until the metal part is molded;

and step three, feeding the metal forming part into a sintering furnace, removing the binder from the metal forming part in the sintering furnace, sintering and forming, taking out the metal forming part, and placing the metal forming part on a discharging platform.

10. The 3D printed metal forming method of claim 9, wherein: when a plurality of metal forming parts are formed at one time, after one group of metal forming parts are formed, another material rack is continuously superposed on the material rack, the operation of the first step and the operation of the second step are continuously carried out, and finally all the metal forming parts are sent into a sintering furnace to be carried out the operation of the third step.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of rapid forming, in particular to a 3D printing metal forming device and a method.

Background

3D printing is one of the rapid prototyping technologies, which is a technology for constructing an object by using an adhesive material such as powdered metal or plastic and the like in a layer-by-layer printing manner on the basis of a digital model file. Currently, laser powder sintering printing and binder jet printing are the most common for 3D printing. Among them, the laser powder sintering technology currently has the following disadvantages: 1) the energy consumption is high, and the materials are continuously heated by high-energy-consumption laser to be welded together; 2) the cycle is long, and a few complex parts can take several days; 3) the surface is rough, and the surface of the part has obvious welding marks due to laser melting, so that post-treatment is needed before actual use; 4) the unit price of the equipment is high, and the unit price of the common equipment is hundreds of thousands or even millions.

Adhesive jet printing technology is an additive manufacturing process in which a liquid adhesive is selectively deposited to connect powder particles. The layers of material are then bonded to form the object. The printhead selectively drops the binder into the powder. The work box is lowered and then another layer of powder is applied and binder is added. Over time, the part develops through delamination of the powder and binder. Adhesive jet printing technology is capable of printing a variety of materials, including metals, sand, and ceramics. Some materials, such as sand, do not require additional treatment. Other materials are typically cured and sintered, and sometimes infiltrated with another material, depending on the application. Hot isostatic pressing may be used to achieve a high density of solid metal. Adhesive jet printing techniques are similar to conventional paper printing. The binder acts like an ink in that it moves over the powder layer, like a paper, to form the final product. The binder-sprayed metal forming needs sintering subsequently, and the problem of material shrinkage is involved, so that the method has the defects in the aspect of manufacturing high-precision small parts at one time.

Therefore, how to change the current situations of high energy consumption, low precision and high manufacturing cost in the 3D printing metal forming technology in the prior art becomes a problem to be solved urgently by the technical personnel in the field.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a 3D printing metal forming device and a method, which are used for solving the problems in the prior art, reducing the energy consumption and the manufacturing cost of 3D printing metal forming and improving the precision of 3D printing metal forming.

In order to achieve the purpose, the invention provides the following scheme: the invention provides a 3D printing metal forming device which comprises a powder library, a material rack, an injection printing spray head, a sintering furnace and a discharging platform, wherein the powder library can contain metal powder, a powder roller is arranged at the top of the powder library, the powder roller can roll along the material rack and lay the metal powder on the material rack, the material rack is made of high-temperature-resistant materials, lifting platforms are respectively arranged at the bottoms of the material racks, and the lifting platforms can drive the material rack to move up and down; the injection printing nozzle is connected with a liquid binder box, the injection printing nozzle can spray liquid binder on the material frame, the sintering furnace can heat and sinter metal formed parts, a heating element is arranged in the sintering furnace, and the sintering furnace is connected with the discharging platform.

Preferably, the 3D printing metal forming device is further provided with a powder recoverer, and the powder recoverer can recover metal powder on the material rest.

Preferably, the sintering furnace is connected with an air inlet system and a vacuum system, the air inlet system comprises an air inlet, the air inlet is communicated with an inner cavity of the sintering furnace, and an air inlet valve is arranged between the air inlet and the sintering furnace; the vacuum system comprises a vacuum pump and a valve, the vacuum pump can vacuumize the sintering furnace, and the valve is arranged between the vacuum pump and the sintering furnace.

Preferably, the work or material rest is open-ended container in top, and is a plurality of the work or material rest can superpose and place, the degree of depth of work or material rest is great than the height of metal forming part.

Preferably, the 3D printing metal forming device further comprises a manipulator, the manipulator is arranged between the material rack and the sintering furnace, the manipulator can place the material rack on the lifting platform, and the manipulator can feed a metal forming part into the sintering furnace or take the metal forming part out of the sintering furnace.

Preferably, the sintering furnace is of a cuboid structure, the sintering furnace is provided with a top gate and a side gate, the top gate is arranged at the top of the sintering furnace, and the side gate is arranged on the side surface of the sintering furnace; the sintering furnace is further connected with a push rod mechanism, and the push rod mechanism can push the metal forming part in the sintering furnace.

Preferably, a conveying mechanism is arranged between the lifting platform and the sintering furnace, and the conveying mechanism can convey the metal forming part and the material rack into the sintering furnace.

Preferably, the heating element is disposed on a side wall of the sintering furnace.

The invention also provides a 3D printing metal forming method, and the 3D printing metal forming device comprises the following steps:

the method comprises the following steps that firstly, a powder roller rolls on a powder storage, metal powder is adhered to the surface of the powder roller, the powder roller rolls on a material rack, the metal powder is laid on the material rack, and an injection printing nozzle sprays liquid adhesive to the metal powder on the material rack to adhere a metal powder material layer;

step two, after the first layer of spraying is finished, the powder roller is reset, the lifting platform drives the material rack to descend, and the operation of the step one is repeated until the metal part is molded;

and step three, feeding the metal forming part into a sintering furnace, removing the binder from the metal forming part in the sintering furnace, sintering and forming, taking out the metal forming part, and placing the metal forming part on a discharging platform.

Preferably, when a plurality of metal forming parts are formed at one time, after one group of metal forming parts are formed, another material frame is continuously stacked on the material frame, the operation of the first step and the operation of the second step are continuously carried out, and finally all the metal forming parts are sent into the sintering furnace to be subjected to the operation of the third step.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following technical effects: the 3D printing metal forming device comprises a powder library, a material rack, an injection printing spray head, a sintering furnace and a discharging platform, wherein the powder library can contain metal powder, a powder roller is arranged at the top of the powder library, the powder roller can roll along the material rack and lay the metal powder on the material rack, the material rack is made of high-temperature-resistant materials, lifting platforms are respectively arranged at the bottoms of the material racks, and the lifting platforms can drive the material rack to move up and down; the injection printing nozzle is connected with the liquid binder workbin, and the injection printing nozzle can be to spraying liquid binder on the work or material rest, and the fritting furnace can heat the sintering to the metal forming part, sets up heating element in the fritting furnace, and ejection of compact platform is connected to the fritting furnace. The invention also provides a 3D printing metal forming method, wherein a powder roller rolls on a powder storage, metal powder is adhered to the surface of the powder roller, the powder roller rolls on a material rack, the metal powder is laid on the material rack, a liquid adhesive is sprayed to the metal powder on the material rack by an injection printing spray head, a metal powder material layer is bonded, the steps are repeated until a metal product is formed, the metal formed part is sent into a sintering furnace, the adhesive is removed from the metal formed part in the sintering furnace, and the metal formed part is sintered and formed. The 3D printing metal forming device is used for forming metal parts, and the adhesive and the metal powder are overlapped for forming, so that the surface precision is improved; the invention adopts the binder to spray the metal powder to form the metal part, and the metal part is sintered by using the sintering furnace after being formed, and compared with the laser powder sintering, the binder spraying and forming process reduces the energy consumption and the production cost.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings without inventive exercise.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a 3D printing metal forming apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of a part of the structure of a 3D printing metal forming device according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of another embodiment of a 3D printing metal forming apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic top view of a part of the structure of another embodiment of the 3D printing metal forming device of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of another embodiment of a 3D printing metal forming apparatus according to the present invention;

the device comprises a powder storage, a material rack 2, an injection printing nozzle 3, a sintering furnace 4, a top gate 401, a side gate 402, a discharging platform 5, a powder roller 6, a lifting platform 7, a liquid binder box 8, a powder recoverer 9, an air inlet system 10, a vacuum system 11, a manipulator 12 and a push rod mechanism 13, wherein the powder storage is arranged in the powder storage, the material rack 2, the injection printing nozzle 3, the sintering furnace 4, the powder recoverer 9, the air inlet system 10, the vacuum system 11, the manipulator 12.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

The invention aims to provide a 3D printing metal forming device and a method, which are used for solving the problems in the prior art, reducing the energy consumption and the manufacturing cost of 3D printing metal forming and improving the precision of 3D printing metal forming.

In order to make the aforementioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in further detail below.

Referring to fig. 1 to 4, fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a 3D printing metal forming apparatus of the present invention, fig. 2 is a schematic top view of a partial structure of the 3D printing metal forming apparatus of the present invention, fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of another embodiment of the 3D printing metal forming apparatus of the present invention, fig. 4 is a schematic top view of a partial structure of another embodiment of the 3D printing metal forming apparatus of the present invention, and fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of another embodiment of the 3D printing metal forming apparatus of the present invention.

The invention provides a 3D printing metal forming device which comprises a powder warehouse 1, a material rack 2, an injection printing spray head 3, a sintering furnace 4 and a discharging platform 5, wherein the powder warehouse 1 can contain metal powder, a powder roller 6 is arranged at the top of the powder warehouse 1, the powder roller 6 can roll along the material rack 2 and lay the metal powder on the material rack 2, the material rack 2 is made of high-temperature-resistant materials, lifting platforms 7 are respectively arranged at the bottoms of the material racks 2, and the lifting platforms 7 can drive the material rack 2 to move up and down; the injection printing nozzle 3 is connected with a liquid binder material box 8, the injection printing nozzle 3 can spray liquid binder on the material rack 2, the sintering furnace 4 can heat and sinter metal formed parts, a heating element is arranged in the sintering furnace 4, and the sintering furnace 4 is connected with a discharging platform 5.

When the 3D printing metal forming device is used for forming a metal part, the powder roller 6 rolls on the powder storage 1, metal powder is adhered to the surface of the powder roller 6, the powder roller 6 rolls on the material frame 2, the metal powder is laid on the material frame 2, the injection printing nozzle 3 sprays liquid adhesive to the metal powder on the material frame 2 to adhere a metal powder material layer, the steps are repeated until the metal part is formed, the metal formed part is sent into the sintering furnace 4, the adhesive is removed from the metal formed part in the sintering furnace 4, and the metal formed part is sintered and formed. The invention adopts the adhesive and the metal powder to be overlapped and molded, improves the surface precision and can reach 30-200 mu m, while in the prior art, the surface of a molded part sintered by the laser powder is rough and needs to be processed for the second time; the invention adopts the binder to spray the metal powder to form the metal part, and the metal part is sintered by the sintering furnace 4 after being formed, and compared with the laser powder sintering, the binder spraying and forming process reduces the energy consumption and the production cost.

In addition, the 3D printing metal forming device is further provided with a powder recoverer 9, the powder recoverer 9 can recover metal powder on the material frame 2, the powder recoverer 9 can recover redundant metal powder laid, the metal powder is recycled, and production cost is saved.

Specifically, the sintering furnace 4 is connected with an air inlet system 10 and a vacuum system 11, the air inlet system 10 comprises an air inlet, the air inlet is communicated with an inner cavity of the sintering furnace 4, the sintering furnace 4 is communicated with the external environment through the air inlet, and an air inlet valve is arranged between the air inlet and the sintering furnace 4, so that the opening and closing of the air inlet can be conveniently controlled; vacuum system 11 includes vacuum pump and valve, and the vacuum pump can carry out the evacuation to sintering furnace 4, and the valve sets up between vacuum pump and sintering furnace 4, and when sintering to the metal finished piece, the operator can decide whether to carry out the evacuation in the sintering furnace 4 according to operating condition.

In this embodiment, work or material rest 2 is open-ended container in the top, and a plurality of work or material rest 2 can superpose and place, and the degree of depth of work or material rest 2 is great than the height of metal forming part, damages the metal forming part when avoiding a plurality of work or material rest 2 superposes to set up. Under the less condition of forming part volume, also can set up the space bar in a work or material rest 2 a plurality of metal finished pieces of shaping, avoid adjacent metal finished piece friction damage, improve metal finished piece's shaping quality on work or material rest 2.

In order to improve work efficiency, 3D prints metal forming device still includes manipulator 12, and manipulator 12 sets up between work or material rest 2 and fritting furnace 4, and manipulator 12 can place work or material rest 2 on lift platform 7, and manipulator 12 can send into the fritting furnace 4 with the metal forming part or take out from fritting furnace 4, in the actual production, can set up one or more manipulator 12 according to the specification of specific operation and production line.

More specifically, the sintering furnace 4 is of a cuboid structure, the sintering furnace 4 is provided with a top gate 401 and a side gate 402, the top gate 401 is arranged at the top of the sintering furnace 4, the top gate 401 is opened, the metal part can be placed into the sintering furnace 4, the side gate 402 is arranged on the side surface of the sintering furnace 4, and after the metal part is sintered, the metal part can be transferred to the discharging platform 5 and can be output through the side gate 402; the sintering furnace 4 is also connected with a push rod mechanism 13, the push rod mechanism 13 can push metal formed parts in the sintering furnace 4, the workload of operators is reduced, the position of the side gate 402 can be specifically set according to the discharging platform 5, and the number of the side gate 402 is at least one.

Under the prerequisite that has set up side gate 402, set up transport mechanism between lift platform 7 and the fritting furnace 4, transport mechanism can carry metal forming spare and work or material rest 2 to fritting furnace 4 in, simplify metal forming spare and shift the step, improve production efficiency. In other embodiments of the present invention, the conveying mechanism may be a belt conveyor, which has a strong conveying capacity and is convenient for maintenance, and when the conveying mechanism is disposed in the sintering furnace 4, the conveying belt of the belt conveyor is a high temperature resistant conveying belt, so as to avoid the influence of high temperature in the sintering furnace 4 on the normal operation of the conveying mechanism.

In the present embodiment, the heating elements are provided on the side wall of the sintering furnace 4 to uniformly heat the metal pieces.

The invention also provides a 3D printing metal forming method, and the 3D printing metal forming device comprises the following steps:

the method comprises the following steps that firstly, a powder roller 6 rolls on a powder warehouse 1, metal powder is adhered to the surface of the powder roller 6, the powder roller 6 rolls on a material rack 2, the metal powder is laid on the material rack 2, and an injection printing nozzle 3 sprays liquid adhesive to the metal powder on the material rack 2 to adhere a metal powder material layer;

step two, after the first layer of spraying is finished, the powder roller 6 resets, the lifting platform 7 drives the material rack 2 to descend, and the operation of the step one is repeated until the metal part is molded;

and step three, feeding the metal formed part into a sintering furnace 4, removing the binder from the metal formed part in the sintering furnace 4, sintering and forming, taking out the metal formed part, and placing the metal formed part on a discharging platform 5.

Further, when a plurality of metal forming parts are formed at one time, after one group of metal forming parts are formed, another material frame 2 is continuously superposed and placed on the material frame 2, the operation of the first step and the operation of the second step are continuously carried out, and finally all the metal forming parts are sent into the sintering furnace 4 to be subjected to the operation of the third step.

Compared with 3D printing in the prior art, the invention has the following advantages: a. the adhesive jet printing does not generate heat in the processing process, the laser powder sintering technology melts the powder together by means of heat, and the heat can cause residual stress of a product in a part, so that stress removal treatment is required after the laser powder sintering technology; b. the precision is high. The adhesive spray printing is carried out by overlapping the adhesive and the metal powder, so the surface precision is high and can reach 30-200 mu m at present, while the laser powder sintering is carried out by metal melting, the surface is very rough and can be used only by secondary processing; c. the energy consumption is low. When the laser powder is sintered, high-power laser must be used for outputting for a long time, and the energy consumption of the method is far less than that of the laser powder sintering technology by adopting a mode of spraying, printing and sintering the adhesive; d. the period is short. The laser powder sintering technology can take several days for larger parts, and only one part can be printed at a time, while the invention can simultaneously print dozens or even hundreds of parts and then sinter at one time, thus having great advantages in time; e. the cost is low. The unit price of the common laser powder sintering technical equipment is as high as hundreds of thousands or even millions, and the invention can greatly reduce the cost of the equipment; f. the waste is less. The excess metal powder can be recovered for further use.

The principle and the implementation mode of the invention are explained by applying a specific example, and the description of the embodiment is only used for helping to understand the method and the core idea of the invention; meanwhile, for a person skilled in the art, according to the idea of the present invention, the specific embodiments and the application range may be changed. In view of the above, the present disclosure should not be construed as limiting the invention.