Patent Application
20230382053
This disclosure relates to an improved process for controlling printing parameters for use in an additive fabrication system.
Additive fabrication, e.g., three-dimensional (3D) printing, provides techniques for fabricating objects, typically by causing portions of a building material to solidify at specific locations. Additive fabrication techniques may include stereolithography, selective or fused deposition modeling, direct composite manufacturing, laminated object manufacturing, selective phase area deposition, multi-phase jet solidification, ballistic particle manufacturing, particle deposition, selective laser sintering or combinations thereof. Many additive fabrication techniques build parts by forming successive layers, which are typically cross-sections of the desired object. Typically each layer is formed such that it adheres to either a previously formed layer or a build surface upon which the object is built.
In one approach to additive fabrication, known as stereolithography, solid objects are created by successively forming thin layers of a curable polymer resin, typically first onto a build surface and then one on top of another. Exposure to actinic radiation cures a thin layer of liquid resin, which causes it to harden and adhere to the bottom surface of the build surface or a previously cured layer on the bottom surface of the build surface.
Stereolithography printers generally contain a vat of photocurable resin that can be cured when the resin interacts with light, usually in the near UV wavelength (e.g., 365-405 nm), predominantly at 405 nm. Historically, lasers were used for light delivery, but in recent years, area projection technologies such as DLP and LCD have been used for light delivery. LCD optical systems consist of a UV backlight which transmits light through an LCD screen from the display industry that is used as a spatial mask layer by layer to trace out the geometry of each layer of the model to be printed.
One aspect of the disclosure provides a computer-implemented method that, when executed by data processing hardware, causes the data processing hardware to perform operations that include receiving print instructions for a three-dimensional (3D) object. The print instructions include a sequence of print maps, each print map corresponding to a sub-instruction for producing a respective cross-section of the 3D object. The operations also include exposing, by an energy source, resin stored in a resin container at a print plane according to a first print map of the sequence of print maps, and modifying a second print map of the sequence of print maps. The operations further include exposing, by the energy source, resin stored in the resin container at the print plane according to the modified second print map.
Implementations of the disclosure may include one or more of the following optional features. In some implementations, modifying the second print map includes receiving, as inputs to a thermal history model, all print maps prior to the second print map. Here, the operations further include simulating, using the thermal history model, a resin temperature at the print plane, and modifying one or more print parameters associated with the second print map based on the simulated resin temperature at the print plane. In these implementations, receiving, as inputs to the thermal history model, all print maps prior to the second print map may include receiving, as input, exothermic effects from curing of the resin, where simulating, using the thermal history model, the resin temperature is based on the exothermic effects from the curing of resin according to all print maps prior to the second print map. Additionally or alternatively, the energy source includes a thermal imaging device. Here, modifying the second print map may further include measuring a resin temperature using an array of temperature measuring devices of the thermal imaging device, where simulating the resin temperature is based on the measured resin temperature. Measuring the resin temperatures may include measuring the resin temperature at the print plane.
In some examples, modifying the one or more print parameters associated with the second print map based on the simulated resin temperature includes modifying one or more of an outer boundary, an exposure time, or an exposure intensity associated with the second print map. Here, the outer boundary may include one of an expanded perimeter or a contracted perimeter. In some implementations, the operations further include determining that the modified one or more print parameters associated with the second print map exceed a predetermined threshold value, and adapting the thermal history model based on the modified one or more print parameters associated with the second print map. In some examples, the energy source includes a liquid crystal panel.
Another aspect of the disclosure provides a system including data processing hardware and memory hardware in communication with the data processing hardware. The memory hardware stores instructions that when executed on the data processing hardware causes the data processing hardware to perform operations that include receiving, by a computer, print instructions for a three-dimensional (3D) object. The print instructions include a sequence of print maps, each print map corresponding to a sub-instruction for producing a respective cross-section of the 3D object. The operations also include exposing, by an energy source, resin stored in a resin container at a print plane according to a first print map of the sequence of print maps, and modifying a second print map of the sequence of print maps. The operations further include exposing, by the energy source, resin stored in the resin container at the print plane according to the modified second print map.
This aspect may include one or more of the following optional features. In some implementations, modifying the second print map includes receiving, as inputs to a thermal history model, all print maps prior to the second print map. Here, the operations further include simulating, using the thermal history model, a resin temperature at the print plane, and modifying one or more print parameters associated with the second print map based on the simulated resin temperature at the print plane. In these implementations, receiving, as inputs to the thermal history model, all print maps prior to the second print map may include receiving, as input, exothermic effects from curing of the resin, where simulating, using the thermal history model, the resin temperature is based on the exothermic effects from the curing of resin according to all print maps prior to the second print map. Additionally or alternatively, the energy source includes a thermal imaging device. Here, modifying the second print map may further include measuring a resin temperature using an array of temperature measuring devices of the thermal imaging device, where simulating the resin temperature is based on the measured resin temperature. Measuring the resin temperatures may include measuring the resin temperature at the print plane.
In some examples, modifying the one or more print parameters associated with the second print map based on the simulated resin temperature includes modifying one or more of an outer boundary, an exposure time, or an exposure intensity associated with the second print map. Here, the outer boundary may include one of an expanded perimeter or a contracted perimeter. In some implementations, the operations further include determining that the modified one or more print parameters associated with the second print map exceed a predetermined threshold value, and adapting the thermal history model based on the modified one or more print parameters associated with the second print map. In some examples, the energy source includes a liquid crystal panel.
The details of one or more implementations of the disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other aspects, features, and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.
The present disclosure relates to a curing system for an additive fabrication device (i.e., a three-dimensional (3D) printer) that incorporates a liquid crystal panel configured to emit unfiltered monochromatic light to transform a liquid photopolymer resin into a solid layer of a fabricated component. Unlike conventional additive fabrication systems, which may include curing systems having lasers or digital light processing (DLP) projectors, the curing system of the present disclosure includes the liquid crystal panel disposed adjacent to a basin that holds the liquid photopolymer resin to be cured. The liquid crystal panel is configured to emit unfiltered monochromatic light to the photopolymer resin within the basin at an optimal wavelength for curing the photopolymer resin. Using a liquid crystal panel according to the present disclosure offers the advantages over conventional laser and DLP curing systems, such as providing a high-resolution (e.g., up to 7,680×4,320 pixels) dimensional grid with a minimized optical path between the liquid crystal panel and the fabricated layer of the component. Reducing the optical path minimizes potential thermal drift between the curing system and the resin within the basin, ensuring more precise definition of the fabricated part.
Referring to
The base 110 of the printer 100 may house various mechanical, optical, and electronic components operable to fabricate objects using the printer 100. In the illustrated example, the base 110 includes a computing system 150 including data processing hardware 152 and memory hardware 154. The data processing hardware 152 is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory hardware 154 to perform computing tasks related to activities (e.g., movement and/or printing based activities) for the printer 100. Generally speaking, the computing system 150 refers to one or more locations of data processing hardware 152 and/or memory hardware 154. For example, the computing system 150 may be located locally on the printer 100 or as part of a remote system (e.g., a remote computer/server or a cloud-based environment).
The base 110 may further include a control panel 160 connected to the computing system 150. The control panel 160 includes a display 162 configured to display operational information associated with the printer 100 and may further include an input device 164, such as a keypad or selection button, for receiving commands from a user. In some examples, the display 162 is a touch-sensitive display providing a graphical user interface configured to receive the user commands from the user in addition to, or in lieu of, the input device 164.
The base 110 houses a curing system 170 configured to transmit actinic radiation into the fluid basin 130 to incrementally cure layers of the photopolymer resin contained within the fluid basin 130. The curing system 170 may include a projector or other radiation source configure to emit light at a wavelength suitable to cure the photopolymer resin within the basin 130. Thus, different light sources may be selected depending on the desired photopolymer resin to be used for fabricating a component C. In the present disclosure, the curing system 170 includes a liquid crystal panel 200 for curing the photopolymer resin within the fluid basin 130.
As shown, the fluid basin 130 is disposed atop the base 110 adjacent to the curing system 170 and is configured to receive a supply of the resin R from the dispensing system 120. The dispensing system 120 may include an internal reservoir 124 providing an enclosed space for storing the resin R until the resin R is needed in the fluid basin 130. The dispensing system 120 further includes a dispensing nozzle 122 in communication with the fluid basin 130 to selectively supply the resin R from the internal reservoir 124 to the fluid basin 130.
The build platform 140 may be movable along a vertical track or rail 142 (oriented along the z-axis direction, as shown in
In the example of
Following the curing of a layer of the fabrication material, the build platform 140 may incrementally advance upward along the rail 142 in order to reposition the build platform 140 for the formation of a new layer and/or to impose separation forces upon any bond with the bottom surface 132 of basin 130. In addition, the basin 130 is mounted onto the support base 110 such that the printer 100 may move the basin 130 along a horizontal axis of motion (e.g., x-axis), the motion thereby advantageously introducing additional separation forces in at least some cases. A wiper 134 is additionally provided, capable of motion along the horizontal axis of motion and which may be removably or otherwise mounted onto the base 110 or the fluid basin 130.
With continued reference to
Referring to
Generally, the curing system 170 is configured to provide actinic radiation through the bottom surface 132 of the basin 130 to cure a layer of the photopolymer resin R within the basin 130. The curing system 170 of the present disclosure includes the liquid crystal panel 200 disposed adjacent to the basin 130. Unlike conventional additive fabrication systems, which may include curing systems based on lasers or digital light processing (DLP) projectors, use of the liquid crystal panel 200 offers the advantage of providing a high-resolution (e.g., up to 7,680×4,320 pixels) dimensional grid with a minimized optical path between the panel 200 and the bottom surface 132 of the basin 130. Reducing the optical path minimizes potential thermal drift between the curing system 170 and the resin R within the basin, ensuring more precise definition of the fabricated part.
While off-the-shelf liquid crystal panels are available, these panels are typically optimized to output visible light for displaying an image for observation by the human eye. Thus, known liquid crystal panels (e.g., televisions or display monitors) generally emit various color components (e.g., blue, green, red) within the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g., 400 nm to 750 nm). However, many photopolymer resins used with the additive fabrication devices 100 are optimized to cure using a wavelength of between 365 nm and 405 nm (inclusive). Because conventional liquid crystal panels are optimized to emit visible light, only approximately 1% of the light emitted from a conventional liquid crystal panel is output at the 365-405 nm wavelength. Accordingly, while functional, conventional liquid crystal panels are inefficient for use in a curing system 170, as curing rates would be significantly slower than known systems (e.g., lasers, DLP) using comparable amounts of power (e.g., Watts).
The liquid crystal panel 200 of the present disclosure is optimized to provide a greater optical transmission efficiency (e.g., greater than 15%) compared to optical transmission rates of conventional liquid crystal panels (e.g., approximately 1%), particularly with respect to wavelengths typically used for curing photopolymer resins (e.g., approximately 405 nm). With reference to
The light unit 210 of the liquid crystal panel 200 includes a monochromatic light source 212 configured to emit an unpolarized light. In some examples, the light source 212 is configured as a backlight provided adjacent to the first polarizer 230. Furthermore, the light source 212 may be selected to emit light in a wavelength corresponding to the wavelength for curing the photopolymer resin R. For example, where the resin R is curable at a wavelength of 405 nm, the light source 212 may be selected or tuned to emit a 405 nm wavelength light. Accordingly, the light source 212 emits an unpolarized, monochromatic light having a wavelength suitable for curing the resin R. In the illustrated example, the light source 212 includes a panel having an array of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) 214. However, other light sources may be implemented as alternative or in addition to the panel array of LEDs 214, including edge-lit LEDs and/or cold cathode fluorescent lamps. As discussed below, known light sources suitable for use in the light unit 210 generally have an optical transmission efficiency of approximately 50%, which must be accounted for when determining the overall optical efficiency of the curing system.
Referring to
The substrate 224 may include a plurality of switching elements 226 (e.g., thin-film transistors) each respectively associated with a pixel of the liquid crystal panel 200. The switching elements 226 are selectively turned on and off to control whether a specific pixel of the liquid crystal panel 200 will be illuminated by twisting the corresponding liquid crystal of the liquid crystal layer 222. Thus, in use, each of the switching elements 226 receives instructions from the computing system 150 corresponding to a profile P (
Each of the polarizers 230, 240 is configured to filter light having undefined or mixed polarization into light having a defined polarization. The first polarizer 230 and the second polarizer 240 may be oriented at a 90° angle relative to each other, such that the first polarizer 230 filters the unpolarized light received from the light source 212 and the second polarizer 240 further filters the rotated light received from the liquid crystal cell 220. Specifically, the first polarizer 230 is configured to convert light received from the light source 212 into a first polarized light by filtering the light into a P-polarized light and an S-Polarized light. The P-polarized light then passes through the liquid crystal cell 220 and is rotated the predetermined angle (e.g., 90° or 270°) by the switching elements 226. The second polarizer 240 is configured to allow the rotated light received from the liquid crystal cell 220 to pass through while filtering out light that is not rotated by the predetermined angle. Thus, rotated light associated with each pixel defining the profile P of the build layer passes through the second polarizer 240 such that second polarizer 240 emits the profile P of the current build layer.
Conventional liquid crystal panels may implement a single layer or a multi-layered polarizing film, or a laminate (so-called polarizing plate) including a substrate and a polarizing film, or in which a polarizing film is sandwiched between at least two substrates via any adhesion layer. When incident light is split into two perpendicular polarization components (i.e., S-polarized light and P-polarized light), polarizer films used in conventional liquid crystal panels have a function of transmitting one of the polarization components and absorbing the other one of the perpendicular polarization component. In the display industry, the polarizers are typically made from an extruded Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) film impregnated with iodine. When PVA is stretched, the molecules are aligned such that a preferred polarization state of the light is transmitted. The iodine is used to absorb the light of the polarization state that is perpendicular to the aligned PVA structure. These polarizing films are then laminated directly to the transistor/LC layers. The PVA/Iodine polarizing films are extremely common and cost effective, with large volumes driven by the LCD display industry. However, data shows that absorptive polarizers that implement conventional polarizing films generally transmit only about 50% of incident energy.
In the present disclosure, the polarizers 230, 240 are optimized to maximize transmissivity of the 405 nm wavelength (or near-UV at 365-405 nm) through each polarizer 230, 240. The first polarizer 230 and the second polarizer 240 may be the same or different. For example, each of the above polarizers 230, 240 may include a wire grid polarizer optimized for transmission of the 405 nm wavelength (or near-UV at 365-405 nm). Unlike conventional film-based polarizers (e.g., extruded PVA film impregnated with iodine), which may only transmit 50% of incident light (including light at the 405 nm wavelength), a wire grid polarizer may transmit approximately 80% of incident light at the 405 nm wavelength. Thus, implementing each of the first polarizer 230 and the second polarizer 240 as wire grid polarizer (80% optical efficiency) provides a 60% increase in optical transmission at each polarizer 230, 240 compared to film-based polarizers (50% optical efficiency).
Optionally or alternatively, the first polarizer 230, the second polarizer 240, or both, may include a thin-film dielectric polarizer optimized for transmission of the 405 nm wavelength. Thin-film dielectric polarizers may have an optical transmission rate of up to approximately 98% for light having a wavelength of 405 nm. However, thin-film dielectric polarizers operate at a relatively large incident angle (e.g., 45° or larger), which limits the practical use of thin-film dielectric polarizers to incorporation as the first polarizer 230 disposed adjacent to the light source 212. Nevertheless, incorporating a thin-film dielectric polarizer (98% optical efficiency) as the first polarizer 230 provides a 96% increase in optical transmission at the first polarizer 230 compared to a film-based polarizer (50% optical efficiency). When implemented in combination with a wire grid polarizer (80% transmission rate) as the second polarizer 240, the overall optical transmission efficiency of the liquid crystal panel can be increased by up to approximately 314% over liquid crystal panels incorporating film-based absorptive polarizers.
The liquid crystal cell 220 includes an additional functional layer 250. In some examples, the functional layer 250 includes thin-film transistors (TFTs) (e.g., poly-Si TFT) configured for temperature sensing. An advantage of including an integrated temperature sensing layer, as opposed to relying on a separate temperature sensor, is that the production cost can be lowered as the temperature sensing layer can be fabricated when other TFT layers of the LCD are being fabricated. In some examples, the functional layer 250 configured as a temperature sensing layer includes a matrix of sensors of area sensing. Such an area sensor can detect an area profile of temperature and its change in real time. In another implementation, the functional layer 250 includes TFTs configured for additional sensing functions such as stress sensing.
The middle column in
For example, in
The right side of the figures show two updated print maps, based on the measured/simulated temperature maps. In the updated print maps, the outer boundary (e.g., the perimeter) may be expanded or contracted based on the measured/simulated temperature maps. As shown in
In some examples, the updating of print maps is performed ad hoc during the printing process, based on real-time temperature sensing. Alternatively, the updating of print maps is performed before the print starts by simulating the temperature maps using an accumulative model with the original print maps. In another implementation, the updating of print maps is done both before the print starts using simulation methods, and during print with real-time temperature sensing.
In a first operation, 601, the 3D model file (i.e., object geometry file) may be sliced into a series of layer data maps (e.g., corresponding to cross-section layers of the 3D model). Each layer data map may correspond to a part geometry of the 3D model such that each layer data map represents one 3D object layer.
In operation 602, the sliced object file may be received by the additive fabrication device. For a given print plane (i.e., the 3D object layer that is in fabrication) temperature data may be collected using a temperature measurement device (e.g., a thermal camera, sensors, etc.) that measures temperatures indirect to the print plane (e.g., resin tank temperature, object surface temperature, etc.) such that operation 604 determines a simulated temperature model at the given print plane using the temperature data.
In operation 606, based on the simulated temperature model of the given print plane, the processor may modify the respective layer data map of the given print plane. The linear difference between the outer boundaries of the original and modified layer data maps correspond to the outer boundary offset.
In operation 608, light polymerization (or another functionally equivalent form of energy polymerization) is performed on the given print plane where the dimensions of resin R cured through polymerization at the given print plane corresponds to the modified layer data map for the given print plane, taking in account the outer boundary offset.
An array of temperature measurement devices collects temperature data at the given print plane in operation 610. The measured temperatures from operation 610 is compared to the simulated temperature model used in operation 606.
Based on the difference between the actual and simulated temperatures and a predetermined threshold value, the processor adapts the process it uses to create the outer boundary offset to minimize the difference between actual and simulated temperatures. For example, the processor may update the thermal history model based on the modified one or more print parameters associated with modified layer of the data map. This process of operations may be repeated as needed to fabricate each 3D object layer.
A number of implementations have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the following claims.
This U.S. patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application 63/365,207, filed on May 24, 2022. The disclosure of this prior application is considered part of the disclosure of this application and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63365207 | May 2022 | US |
