阅读说明：本技术 供粉装置、3d打印机及供粉方法 (Powder supply device, 3D printer and powder supply method ) 是由 李敬 汪丰林 丁笑 李华城 袁晓波 李军旗 于 2019-08-08 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明提供一种供粉装置,应用于3D打印机,供粉装置设于成型平台上方且包括两个粉仓、铺粉件和控制器,两个粉仓分别设于成型平台两侧,每个粉仓朝向成型平台的一端设有出粉阀门,且每个粉仓连接有重力感应器,重力感应器用于感应粉仓中粉末的质量。铺粉件可在成型平台上往复运动以铺平由粉仓落至成型平台上的粉末；控制器与重力感应器电连接以接收重力感应器发出的重力感应信号,控制器还用于计算每次铺粉后粉仓中应剩余粉末的质量。当粉仓中粉末的质量等于应剩余粉末的质量时,控制器控制出粉阀门关闭。上述供粉装置能够精准控制供粉量,提升了供粉效率和打印效率。本发明同时提供一种3D打印机和供粉方法。(The invention provides a powder supply device which is applied to a 3D printer, the powder supply device is arranged above a forming platform and comprises two powder bins, a powder spreading piece and a controller, the two powder bins are respectively arranged at two sides of the forming platform, one end of each powder bin, facing the forming platform, is provided with a powder outlet valve, and each powder bin is connected with a gravity sensor which is used for sensing the mass of powder in the powder bin. The powder spreading part can reciprocate on the forming platform to spread the powder falling from the powder bin onto the forming platform; the controller is electrically connected with the gravity sensor to receive a gravity sensing signal sent by the gravity sensor, and the controller is also used for calculating the mass of the powder which needs to be remained in the powder bin after powder spreading every time. When the mass of the powder in the powder bin is equal to the mass of the powder to be remained, the controller controls the powder outlet valve to be closed. Above-mentioned powder supply device can accurate control supply powder volume, has promoted and has supplied powder efficiency and print efficiency. The invention also provides a 3D printer and a powder supply method.)

1. A powder supply device is applied to a 3D printer and is arranged above a forming platform, and the powder supply device is characterized by comprising two powder bins, a powder spreading piece and a controller, wherein the two powder bins are respectively arranged at two sides of the forming platform, one end of each powder bin, facing the forming platform, is provided with a powder outlet valve, and each powder bin is connected with a gravity sensor which is used for sensing the mass of powder in the powder bin; the powder spreading part can reciprocate on the forming platform to spread the powder falling from the powder bin onto the forming platform; the controller with the gravity inductor electricity is connected in order to receive the gravity-feed tank sends the gravity-feed tank response signal, the controller still is used for calculating after spreading the powder at every turn the quality that should remain the powder in the powder storehouse, works as when the quality of powder equals to the quality that should remain the powder in the powder storehouse, the controller control go out the powder valve and close.

2. A powder supply device as defined in claim 1, wherein: the powder storehouse is the infundibulate, the powder storehouse orientation the one end of shaping platform is equipped with out the powder mouth, supply the powder device still include with go out the driving piece that the powder valve is connected, the driving piece with the controller electricity is connected, is used for drive under the control of controller go out the motion of powder valve, in order to open or close go out the powder mouth.

3. A powder supply device as defined in claim 2, wherein: the driving piece is a motor, the powder outlet valve is arc-shaped, and the powder outlet valve can be driven by the motor to rotate relative to the powder outlet.

4. A powder supply device as defined in claim 1, wherein: the controller is also used for recording the mass of the powder in the powder bin according to the received gravity sensing signal.

5. A powder supply device as defined in claim 4, wherein: the forming platform is provided with a forming plane, the controller calculates the powder quality required by powder paving at each time according to the thickness of the printing layer and the area of the forming plane, and then calculates the quality of the powder corresponding to the powder paving piece in the powder bin according to the powder quality in the powder bin and the powder quality required by powder paving at each time.

6. A powder supply device as defined in claim 4, wherein: the controller is also used for presetting a powder redundancy coefficient, and the mass of the powder to be remained meets the following requirements: m2 ═ M1-a × M, where M2 is the mass of powder to be left, M1 is the mass of powder in the powder bin, M is the mass of powder required for each powder laying, and a is the preset powder redundancy coefficient.

7. A powder supply device as defined in claim 4, wherein: the powder supply device further comprises a position sensor connected with the powder spreading piece, and the position sensor is electrically connected with the controller and used for sensing the position of the powder spreading piece.

8. A powder supply device as defined in claim 1, wherein: powder is supplied to the two powder bins in turn, and after the powder outlet valve of the powder bin corresponding to the powder spreading part is closed, the powder spreading part moves to the lower part of the powder bin on the other side from the lower part of the corresponding powder bin.

9. A 3D printer comprising a molding platform, wherein the 3D printer further comprises a powder supply device according to any one of claims 1-8.

10. A powder supplying method applied to the powder supplying apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized by comprising the steps of:

recording the mass of the powder in the two powder bins;

confirming the position of the powder spreading part;

calculating the mass of the powder to be remained in the powder bin corresponding to the powder paving piece;

controlling a discharge valve of a powder bin corresponding to the powder spreading part to be opened, so that the powder in the powder bin falls onto the forming platform;

sensing the mass of the powder in the powder bin corresponding to the powder spreading part, and controlling the discharge valve to be closed when the mass of the powder in the powder bin is equal to the mass of the powder to be remained;

the powder spreading piece moves from the lower part of the corresponding powder bin to the lower part of the powder bin on the other side, and powder is uniformly spread on the forming platform so as to carry out laser printing;

and repeating the steps until the printing of the product is finished.

Technical Field

The invention relates to a 3D printing technology, in particular to a powder supply device, a 3D printer and a powder supply method.

Background

As a novel metal workpiece manufacturing technology, metal 3D printing can realize rapid forming and customized production of products. The selective laser melting technology is a common mode for metal 3D printing at present, and has the characteristics of high precision, high forming density and the like. Spread powder as the powder supply mode that selective laser melting technique used the broadest, the thickness that needs to guarantee each layer to spread powder is unanimous with printing section thickness, however, current powder device of spreading often can't accurate control powder supply volume, still need retrieve unnecessary powder after spreading the powder, has reduced printing efficiency.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, a powder supplying device, a 3D printer and a powder supplying method are needed to solve the above problems.

The invention provides a powder supply device, which is applied to a 3D printer and is arranged above a forming platform, wherein the powder supply device comprises two powder bins, a powder spreading piece and a controller, the two powder bins are respectively arranged at two sides of the forming platform, one end of each powder bin, facing the forming platform, is provided with a powder outlet valve, and each powder bin is connected with a gravity sensor which is used for sensing the mass of powder in the powder bin; the powder spreading part can reciprocate on the forming platform to spread the powder falling from the powder bin onto the forming platform; the controller with the gravity inductor electricity is connected in order to receive the gravity-feed tank sends the gravity-feed tank response signal, the controller still is used for calculating after spreading the powder at every turn the quality that should remain the powder in the powder storehouse, works as when the quality of powder equals to the quality that should remain the powder in the powder storehouse, the controller control go out the powder valve and close.

The invention provides a 3D printer, which comprises a forming platform, and the 3D printer further comprises the powder supply device.

A third aspect of the present invention provides a powder supply method applied to the above powder supply apparatus, the powder supply method including the steps of:

recording the mass of the powder in the two powder bins;

confirming the position of the powder spreading part;

calculating the mass of the powder to be remained in the powder bin corresponding to the powder paving piece;

controlling a discharge valve of a powder bin corresponding to the powder spreading part to be opened, so that the powder in the powder bin falls onto the forming platform;

sensing the mass of the powder in the powder bin corresponding to the powder spreading part, and controlling the discharge valve to be closed when the mass of the powder in the powder bin is equal to the mass of the powder to be remained;

the powder spreading piece moves from the lower part of the corresponding powder bin to the lower part of the powder bin on the other side, and powder is uniformly spread on the forming platform so as to carry out laser printing;

and repeating the steps until the printing of the product is finished.

In above-mentioned powder supply device, 3D printer and the powder supply method, the reciprocating motion of shop's powder spare has realized two-way powder supply, and shop's powder spare need not empty to walk, and can guarantee to print the in-process and have the printing powder of sufficient volume, need not to shut down and trade the powder, has promoted and has supplied powder efficiency and printing efficiency. The discharging valve is controlled by calculating the mass of the residual powder, so that the powder supply amount is accurately controlled, the powder utilization rate is improved, and the powder screening work after printing is reduced.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a powder supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a powder supply method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of the main elements

Detailed Description

In order that the above objects, features and advantages of the present invention may be more clearly understood, the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to specific embodiments. It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments of the present application may be combined with each other without conflict.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, and the described embodiments are merely a subset of the embodiments of the present invention, rather than a complete embodiment. 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.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The terminology used in the description of the invention herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention.

Referring to fig. 1, an embodiment of the invention provides a powder supply device 100 applied to a 3D printer, which is disposed above a forming platform 200 and used for quantitatively supplying printing powder onto a forming plane 210 of the forming platform 200. The powder supplying device 100 includes two powder bins 10, a powder spreading member 20, and at least one controller 30.

Two powder bins 10 are respectively arranged at two sides of the forming platform 200, the powder bins 10 are used for accommodating and supplying printing powder, and one end of the powder bin 10 facing the forming platform 200 is provided with a powder outlet 11.

The powder bin 10 is further provided with a discharge valve 12 at one end facing the forming platform 200, and the discharge valve 12 is used for opening or closing the powder outlet 11.

Each powder bin 10 is connected with a gravity sensor 13, and the gravity sensor 13 is used for sensing the mass of the powder in the corresponding powder bin 10.

Preferably, the powder hopper 10 is funnel-shaped. The powder supply apparatus 100 further comprises a driving member 40 connected to the discharge valve 12. The driving member 40 is electrically connected to the controller 30 and is used for driving the discharging valve 12 to move under the control of the controller 30 so as to open or close the powder outlet 11.

In one embodiment, the driving member 40 is a motor, the discharging valve 12 is in a circular arc shape, and the discharging valve 12 can be driven by the motor to rotate relative to the powder outlet 11 to open or close the powder outlet 11.

It will be appreciated that in other embodiments, the discharge valve 12 may have other shapes, such as a flat plate, and the driving member 40 may be other driving mechanisms capable of driving the discharge valve 12 to move, such as a pneumatic cylinder. It will be appreciated that drive member 40 could be eliminated and discharge valve 12 could be a solenoid valve.

The powder spreading member 20 can reciprocate on the forming platform 200 to uniformly spread the powder dropped from the powder hopper 10 onto the forming platform 200. Because the two powder bins 10 supply powder in turn, after the discharge valve 12 of the powder spreading part 20 corresponding to the powder bin 10 is closed, the powder spreading part 20 moves from the lower part of the corresponding powder bin 10 to the lower part of the powder bin 10 at the other side, and then the powder spreading part circulates in turn.

In one embodiment, the dusting member 20 is a spatula. It is understood that the powder supplying device 100 may further include a powder supplying driving member (not shown) connected to the powder spreading member 20 for driving the powder spreading member 20 to reciprocate in a straight line.

In one embodiment, the powder supply device 100 further comprises a position sensor (not shown) connected to the powder spreading member 20, and the position sensor is electrically connected to the controller 30 for sensing the position of the powder spreading member 20.

The controller 30 is electrically connected to the gravity sensor 13 to receive the gravity sensing signal from the gravity sensor 13 and record the mass of the powder in the powder bin 10 according to the received gravity sensing signal.

The controller 30 is further configured to calculate a mass of powder required for each powder spreading according to the thickness of the current printing layer and the area of the molding plane 210, and calculate a mass of powder that should remain in the powder bin 10 after each powder supply according to the mass of powder in the current powder bin 10 and the mass of powder required for each powder spreading. The thickness of the printing layer is the thickness of the product slice, and the powder spreading thickness of each layer is consistent with the thickness of the corresponding printing layer.

In one embodiment, the controller 30 is further configured to preset a powder redundancy factor, i.e. a ratio of the powder supply amount to the powder demand amount for actually printing each layer of the product, according to the requirements of the 3D printer characteristics. The powder redundancy factor is greater than 1, e.g., 1.1, 1.2, etc. The mass of the remaining powder should satisfy the following: m2 ═ M1-a × M. Wherein, M2 is the mass of the powder to be remained, M1 is the mass of the powder in the current powder bin 10, M is the mass of the powder required by each powder paving, and a is a preset powder redundancy coefficient.

The controller 30 is also used to control the discharge valve 12 to open and close. Specifically, after confirming that the powder spreading part 20 is located below any one of the powder bins 10, the controller 30 controls the discharge valve 12 of the powder bin 10 corresponding to the powder spreading part 20 to be opened; when the gravity sensor 13 senses that the mass of the powder in the powder bin 10 is equal to the mass of the powder to be remained, the controller 30 controls the discharge valve 12 of the powder bin 10 to be closed, so as to accurately control the powder supply amount.

The invention also provides a 3D printer, which comprises a forming platform 200 and the powder supply device 100. It is understood that the 3D printer further includes a laser printing device (not shown) for performing laser printing on the powder on the molding plane 210 after each powder spreading to mold a printing layer until the printing of the product is completed.

Referring to fig. 2, the present invention also provides a 3D printing method, including the following steps.

S1: the mass of powder in the two powder bins 10 was recorded.

Specifically, each gravity sensor 13 senses the mass of the powder in the corresponding powder bin 10 and sends a gravity sensing signal to the controller 30, and the controller 30 receives the gravity sensing signal and records the mass of the powder in the current powder bin 10.

S2: the position of the powder spreading member 20 is confirmed.

Specifically, the controller 30 determines the position of the powder spreading member 20 and determines which side of the powder hopper 10 the powder spreading member 20 is located below. In one embodiment, the controller 30 may receive a position signal from a position sensor of the powder spreading member 20 to confirm the position of the powder spreading member 20.

When the powder spreading member 20 is located below the left powder hopper 10, the controller 30 determines that the moving direction of the powder spreading member 20 is to be moved from left to right. When the powder spreading member 20 is located below the right-hand powder bin 10, the controller 30 determines that the movement direction of the powder spreading member 20 is moving from right to left.

S3: and calculating the mass of the powder which should be remained in the powder bin 10 corresponding to the powder laying part 20.

Specifically, the controller 30 calculates the mass of the powder required for each powder spreading according to the area of the molding plane 210 and the thickness of the printing layer, and then calculates the mass of the powder to be remained in the powder bin 10 according to the mass of the powder in the current powder bin 10 and the mass of the powder required for each powder spreading. It will be appreciated that if the mass of powder required for each powder application is fixed, the mass of powder that should remain in the powder hopper 10 can be calculated directly.

In one embodiment, the mass M2 of the powder that should remain in the powder bin 10 is the difference between the mass M1 of the powder in the powder bin 10 recorded in step S1 and the mass M of the powder required for each powder paving, that is, M2 — M1-M.

In another embodiment, the controller 30 may preset a powder redundancy factor according to the requirements of the 3D printer characteristics. At this time, the mass of the remaining powder should satisfy: m2 ═ M1-a × M, where M1 is the mass of powder to be left, M1 is the current mass of powder in the powder bin 10, M is the mass of powder required for each powder laying, and a is the preset powder redundancy factor.

S4: and controlling the discharge valve 12 of the powder spreading part 20 corresponding to the powder bin 10 to open, so that the powder in the powder bin 10 falls onto the molding plane 210.

The controller 30 sends a control signal to the driving member 40 on the powder bin 10 corresponding to the powder spreading member 20, and the driving member 40 drives the discharging valve 12 to open, so that the powder in the powder bin 10 falls onto the molding plane 210. In the present embodiment, the driving member 40 controls the discharge valve 12 to rotate to open the powder outlet 11.

S5: the mass of the powder in the powder bin 10 corresponding to the powder spreading part 20 is sensed, and when the mass of the powder in the powder bin 10 is equal to the mass of the powder which should be remained, the discharging valve 12 is controlled to be closed.

The gravity sensor 13 senses the mass of the powder remaining in the powder bin 10 corresponding to the powder spreading part 20, and when the mass of the powder remaining in the powder bin 10 is equal to the mass of the powder to be left, the controller 30 sends a control signal to the driving part 40, and the driving part 40 drives the discharge valve 12 to close. In the present embodiment, the driving member 40 controls the discharge valve 12 to rotate in the opposite direction, so that the discharge valve 12 rotates and closes the powder outlet 11, thereby precisely controlling the powder supply amount.

S6: the powder spreading member 20 moves from the lower part of the corresponding powder bin 10 to the lower part of the other powder bin 10 so as to uniformly spread the powder on the molding plane 210 for laser printing.

Preferably, the laser printing is performed using a selective laser melting technique. And after printing one layer, repeating the steps S1-S6 until the printing of the product is finished.

In the powder supply device 100, the 3D printer and the powder supply method, the reciprocating motion of the powder paving part 20 realizes bidirectional powder supply, the powder paving part 20 does not need to be idle, enough printing powder can be guaranteed to be available in the printing process, the powder is not required to be replaced by stopping, and the powder supply efficiency and the printing efficiency are improved. The powder supply device 100 and the powder supply method control the discharge valve 12 by calculating the mass of the powder to be left, thereby accurately controlling the powder supply amount, improving the powder utilization rate and reducing the powder sieving work after printing.

While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the true scope of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.