Patent Application
20200406541
The present invention generally relates to a three-dimensional printer head, and more specifically, to a heated three-dimensional printer head for variable material deposition.
Additive manufacturing, or three-dimensional (3D) printing, is typically conducted in a 3D printer or another similar device and involves the deposition and curing or hardening of material in patterned layers to form a 3D printed object. Most 3D printers include a housing, a printing bed disposed in the housing, a printing head, nozzle or dispenser that dispenses the material onto the printing bed and then onto subsequent layers, a curing or hardening element that cures or hardens the material and a controller system. The control system controls the position and orientation of the printing head, nozzle or dispenser as well as the position and orientation of the curing or hardening element. In this way, the 3D printed object can be provided with various, oftentimes complex geometries.
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to an additive manufacturing device. A non-limiting example of the additive manufacturing device includes a printing material source, a printing head and a temperature control system. The printing material source is configured to contain a supply of printing material. The printing head is receptive of the printing material from the printing material source and is configured to print an object with the printing material. The temperature control system is coupled to the printing head and is configured to adjust a temperature of the printing material during printing to cause state changes of the printing material resulting in the printing material being one of soluble and insoluble in a solvent.
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to an additive manufacturing method. A non-limiting example of the additive manufacturing method includes printing an object with printing material and adjusting a temperature of the printing material during the printing to cause state changes of the printing material resulting in the printing material being one of soluble and insoluble in a solvent.
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to an additive manufacturing method. A non-limiting example of the additive manufacturing method includes mixing first and second materials to produce printing material with a melting temperature. The first material is insoluble in a solvent and has a first vaporizing temperature. The second material is soluble in the solvent and has a second vaporizing temperature lower than the first vaporizing temperature and higher than the melting temperature. The non-limiting example of the additive manufacturing method further includes printing first and second portions of an object by dispensing the printing material at first dispensing temperatures, which exceed the melting temperature and are lower than the second vaporizing temperature, and at second dispensing temperatures, which exceed the second vaporizing temperature and are lower than the first vaporizing temperature, respectively
Additional technical features and benefits are realized through the techniques of the present invention. Embodiments and aspects of the invention are described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimed subject matter. For a better understanding, refer to the detailed description and to the drawings.
The specifics of the exclusive rights described herein are particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other features and advantages of the embodiments of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The diagrams depicted herein are illustrative. There can be many variations to the diagrams or the operations described therein without departing from the spirit of the invention. For instance, the actions can be performed in a differing order or actions can be added, deleted or modified. Also, the term “coupled” and variations thereof describe having a communications path between two elements and do not imply a direct connection between the elements with no intervening elements/connections between them. All of these variations are considered a part of the specification.
As will be described below, an additive manufacturing device is provided. The additive manufacturing device includes a printing material source, a printing head and a temperature control system. The printing material source contains a supply of printing material. The printing head is receptive of the printing material from the printing material source and is configured to print an object with the printing material. The temperature control system is coupled to the printing head and is configured to adjust a temperature of the printing material during the printing to thereby cause state changes of the printing material during the printing. These state changes result in the printing material being one of soluble (after previously being insoluble) in a solvent and insoluble (after previously being soluble) in a solvent.
In addition, an additive manufacturing method is provided. The additive manufacturing method includes printing an object with printing material and adjusting a temperature of the printing material during the printing to cause state changes of the printing material resulting in the printing material being one of soluble and insoluble in a solvent.
Turning now to an overview of technologies that are more specifically relevant to aspects of the invention, 3D printing can be used for making components of industrial equipment, toys, art, etc. However, due to the nature of 3D printing, objects of low-to-high levels of complexity that do not have a flat base are typically more difficult to balance during the printing. Thus, it is often necessary to provide a balance or an additional feature to support the printed object so that successive layers thereof can be reliably printed on underlying layers.
Over the years, there have been a number of ways to provide balancing or additional features for support. These often employ the use of two or more different types of materials where one of the materials is dissolvable in a chemical and the other is not dissolvable in the chemical. In these or other cases, the use of two or more types of materials leads to further issues that must be resolved including, in particular, the need to connect sources of each of the materials to a single printing head or the use of multiple printing heads. In either case, the complexity of 3D printers can be substantially increased.
Turning now to an overview of the aspects of the invention, one or more embodiments of the invention provide for the additive manufacturing or 3D printing of a complex object without resorting to the use of two or more types of materials.
The above-described aspects of the invention address one or more shortcomings of the prior art by providing for improved additive manufacturing or 3D printing. Instead of using multiple types of materials to allow for the construction of an object, a single material is used. With this single material, its ability to be dissolved or remain solid in a solvent is governed by an increase or a decrease in an amount of heat applied to the single material in the printing head. The increase in temperature evaporates part of the material allowing for only solid plastic to be deposited. At lower temperatures, additional chemicals remain in the material that allow it to easily dissolve in the solvent.
Turning now to a more detailed description of aspects of the present invention,
The printing material 111 can include plastic and optionally a bonding agent. The concentration of the bonding agent in the printing material 111 is largely determinative as to whether the printing material 111 will be or will not be dissolvable in the solvent upon being printed and can be affected by the temperature adjustment as will be discussed below. Thus, to the extent that the printing material 111 is not heated during printing, the bonding agent will be present in the printing material 111 and the object or thing that is printed will be dissolvable in the solvent. By contrast, to the extent that the printing material 111 is heated during printing, the bonding agent will not be present in the printing material 111 and the object or thing that is printed will not be dissolvable in the solvent.
In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, the additive manufacturing device 101 further includes a housing 140 defining an interior 141, a printing bed 142 disposed in the interior 141 and on which the object is printable by the printing head 120 and a track 143 that is configured to support the printing head 120 and to move the printing head 120 throughout the interior 141 relative to the printing bed 142 in multiple directions and with multiple degrees of freedom.
With the housing 140 defining the interior 141, it is to be understood that the printing material source 110 can be disposed inside the interior 141 or, as shown in
With reference to
In accordance with embodiments, the printing of operation 201 can include printing succeeding layers of the object (2011). Here, each succeeding layer includes one of the following types of layers: a type of layer in which only the printing material 111 that is in a state in which it is soluble in the solvent is present, a type of layer in which only the printing material 111 that is in a state in which it is insoluble in the solvent is present and type of layer in which a combination of the printing material 111 in a state in which it is soluble in the solvent and the printing material 111 in a state in which it is insoluble in the solvent is present.
For the case of a succeeding layer including only the printing material 111 being soluble in the solvent, the printing of the succeeding layer of operation 2011 includes using the temperature control system 130 to set the temperature of the printing material 111 at a temperature at which the printing material 111 is soluble in the solvent during the printing of the printing material 111 by the printing head 120 (20111). Conversely, for the case of a succeeding layer including only the printing material 111 being insoluble in the solvent, the printing of the succeeding layer of operation 2011 includes using the temperature control system 130 to set the temperature of the printing material 111 at a temperature at which the printing material 111 is insoluble in the solvent during the printing of the printing material 111 by the printing head 120 (20112).
For the case of a succeeding layer including the combination of the printing material 111 being soluble and insoluble in the solvent, the printing of the succeeding layer of operation 2011 includes using the temperature control system 130 to increase a temperature of the printing material 111 during the printing of the printing material 111 by the printing head 120 at soluble-to-insoluble printing material transitions within the succeeding layer (20113) and, optionally, ceasing the printing at least during the increasing of the temperature (20114). Conversely, for the case of a succeeding layer including the combination of the printing material 111 being soluble and insoluble in the solvent, the printing of the succeeding layer of operation 2011 includes using the temperature control system 130 to decrease a temperature of the printing material 111 during the printing of the printing material 111 by the printing head 120 at insoluble-to-soluble printing material transitions within the succeeding layer (20115) and, optionally, ceasing the printing at least during the decreasing of the temperature (20116).
To the extent that the printing of each succeeding layer of the object involves setting the printing head 120 at a particular height of the succeeding layer and moving the printing head 120 laterally at that height while printing the printing material 111, for the case of a succeeding layer including the combination of the printing material 111 being soluble and insoluble in the solvent, the printing of the succeeding layer of operation 2011 can further include executing the printing such that numbers of soluble-to-insoluble printing material transitions and such that numbers of insoluble-to-soluble printing material transitions are maintained below predefined limits (20117).
In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, an additive manufacturing method for use as a particular example of the additive manufacturing method of
The method further includes printing first portions of an object (302) by dispensing the printing material at first dispensing temperatures TD1. The first dispensing temperatures TD1 exceed the melting temperature TM so that the printing material can be dispensed. The first dispensing temperatures TD1 are also lower than the second vaporizing temperature TV2. As a result, the first portions of the object have both the first material and the second material included therein. These first portions are thus soluble in the solvent.
The method further includes printing second portions of the object (303) by dispensing the printing material at second dispensing temperatures TD2. The second dispensing temperatures TD2 exceed the melting temperature TM so that the printing material can be dispensed. The second dispensing temperatures TD2 also exceed the second vaporizing temperature TV2 and are lower than the first vaporizing temperature TV1. As a result, the second portions of the object have the first material included therein since the first material has not been heated sufficiently to vaporize but do not include the second material which has been vaporized. These second portions are thus insoluble in the solvent.
In accordance with further embodiments, the method can also include bathing the object in the solvent (304) to dissolve the second material present in the first portions and to thereby remove the first portions from the second portions.
With continued reference to
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Where the printing of the succeeding layer 513 involves printing a sub-portion of the first portion, printing a sub-portion of the second portion and a transition there-between, the printing of the succeeding layer 513 includes setting the dispensing of the printing material at the first dispensing temperatures TD1, setting a height of the printing head 120 at an appropriate height and moving the printing head 120 laterally while executing the printing of the printing material until reaching a location of the transition. At the transition, the printing of the succeeding layer 513 includes increasing the dispensing temperature (i.e., by engaging the heating elements 131 of
Where the printing of the succeeding layer 513 involves printing a sub-portion of the second portion, printing a sub-portion of the first portion and a transition there-between, the printing of the succeeding layer 513 includes setting the dispensing of the printing material at the second dispensing temperatures TD2, setting a height of the printing head 120 at an appropriate height and moving the printing head 120 laterally while executing the printing of the printing material until reaching a location of the transition. At the transition, the printing of the succeeding layer 513 includes decreasing the dispensing temperature (i.e., by engaging the cooling elements 132 of
As shown in
In accordance with embodiments, the additive manufacturing device 101 can also include a control or processing system. This control or processing system can include a processing unit, a memory unit, a servo control unit that can operate the various components of the additive manufacturing device 101 in accordance with commands issued by the processing unit, a networking unit by which the processing unit is communicative with external systems and an input/output (I/O) bus by which the processing unit, the memory unit, the servo control unit and the networking unit are communicative. The memory unit has executable instructions stored thereon which are readable and executable by the processing unit. When the executable instructions are read and executed by the processing unit, the executable instructions cause the processing unit to at least generate and issue the commands to the servo control unit.
Various embodiments of the invention are described herein with reference to the related drawings. Alternative embodiments of the invention can be devised without departing from the scope of this invention. Various connections and positional relationships (e.g., over, below, adjacent, etc.) are set forth between elements in the following description and in the drawings. These connections and/or positional relationships, unless specified otherwise, can be direct or indirect, and the present invention is not intended to be limiting in this respect. Accordingly, a coupling of entities can refer to either a direct or an indirect coupling, and a positional relationship between entities can be a direct or indirect positional relationship. Moreover, the various tasks and process steps described herein can be incorporated into a more comprehensive procedure or process having additional steps or functionality not described in detail herein.
The following definitions and abbreviations are to be used for the interpretation of the claims and the specification. As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having,” “contains” or “containing,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a composition, a mixture, process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but can include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such composition, mixture, process, method, article, or apparatus.
Additionally, the term “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance or illustration.” Any embodiment or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. The terms “at least one” and “one or more” may be understood to include any integer number greater than or equal to one, i.e. one, two, three, four, etc. The terms “a plurality” may be understood to include any integer number greater than or equal to two, i.e. two, three, four, five, etc. The term “connection” may include both an indirect “connection” and a direct “connection.”
The terms “about,” “substantially,” “approximately,” and variations thereof, are intended to include the degree of error associated with measurement of the particular quantity based upon the equipment available at the time of filing the application. For example, “about” can include a range of ±8% or 5%, or 2% of a given value.
For the sake of brevity, conventional techniques related to making and using aspects of the invention may or may not be described in detail herein. In particular, various aspects of computing systems and specific computer programs to implement the various technical features described herein are well known. Accordingly, in the interest of brevity, many conventional implementation details are only mentioned briefly herein or are omitted entirely without providing the well-known system and/or process details.
The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computer program product at any possible technical detail level of integration. The computer program product may include a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.
The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire.
Computer readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in each computing/processing device receives computer readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium within the respective computing/processing device.
Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions, instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state-setting data, configuration data for integrated circuitry, or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++, or the like, and procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The computer readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readable program instruction by utilizing state information of the computer readable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.
Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer readable program instructions.
These computer readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an article of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computer implemented process, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain the principles of the embodiments, the practical application or technical improvement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments described herein.
