Patent Application
20200198061
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2018-0167791 filed on Dec. 21, 2018, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a fine wire, and more particularly, to a method of manufacturing a fine wire suitable for speedy and small quantity production of a fine wire having a desired cross-sectional area at low cost without being greatly restricted by a material.
Generally, a metal wire is manufactured using a cold drawing technology.
The wire drawing technology for manufacturing metal wires is one cold molding process technology, in which a cross-sectional area of a wire is gradually reduced by a conical die. The surface quality and hardness of the wire are improved as the cross-sectional area of the wire is reduced through a drawing process.
However, such a conventional wire drawing technology is limited in a material to be used, wherein the material is suitable for mass production but has a problem of not being suitable for small quantity production. In addition, there is a problem in that a great deal of waste is generated during a manufacturing process. Accordingly, it has not been suitable for producing high-quality wires using various materials for special purposes such as recent medical devices or experimental instruments.
Korean Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-1996-0033581 (Oct. 22, 1996)
The present invention is directed to providing a method of manufacturing a fine wire which is suitable for speedy and small quantity production of a fine wire having a desired cross-sectional area at low cost without being restricted much by a material.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a wire using a metal powder which includes stacking a metal powder on an upper surface of a molding plate in which a plurality of semicircular molding grooves are formed in parallel, melting the metal powder by projecting a laser beam onto the metal powder stacked on the upper surface of the molding plate, wherein the laser beam is projected along the molding grooves to melt the metal powder, and removing the remaining metal powder when the melted metal powder is solidified so that a wire is formed in the molding grooves of the molding plate.
Here, the molding plate may be a copper molding plate formed of a copper material.
A thickness of the stacked metal powder may be greater than a width of the molding groove by 0.1 mm.
Various molding plates having molding grooves with different sizes may be provided, and the molding plate corresponding to a thickness of the wire may be selected and used.
The method may further include rotating the wire primarily formed of the metal powder in a circumferential direction of the wire in the molding grooves of the molding plate and projecting a laser beam onto the rotated wire again to melt the wire so as to secondarily form the wire.
The projecting of the laser beam onto the primarily formed wire may be performed with output greater than that of the projecting of the laser beam onto the metal powder.
A rotating angle of the wire may be 180°.
The method may further include performing a drawing process on the wire formed of the metal powder using a die so as to improve a surface roughness and a roundness of the wire.
The method may further include rotating the wire primarily formed of the metal powder in a circumferential direction in the molding grooves of the molding plate, projecting a laser beam onto the rotated wire again to melt the wire to secondarily form the wire, and performing a drawing process on the secondarily formed wire using a die, which may be sequentially performed to gradually improve a surface roughness, a roundness, and a hardness of the wire.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a molding apparatus for manufacturing a wire using a metal powder, including a molding plate in which a plurality of semicircular molding grooves are formed in parallel in an upper surface of a flat plate type body of the molding plate, wherein a metal powder is stacked on the upper surface, and a laser beam is projected onto the metal powder along the molding grooves to melt the metal powder so as to form a wire, and including a laser beam projector configured to project a laser beam onto the metal powder stacked on the molding plate.
Here, the molding plate may further include a base having an upper surface which supports the molding plate, a powder feeder configured to supply the metal powder to be stacked on the molding plate, and a layering bar configured to apply the metal powder on the upper surface of the molding plate while moving along the upper surface of the base.
An installation part of the base, which supports the molding plate, may be recessed downward from the upper surface of the base and the molding plate may not protrude from the upper surface of the base when the layering bar moves to stack the metal powder on the molding plate.
The molding apparatus may further include a lift cylinder installed under the base to lift the installation part.
The molding apparatus may further include a chamber box configured to accommodate the molding plate on the upper surface of the base, wherein an upper surface of the chamber box may be formed of a transparent material through which the laser beam transmits, a lower surface of the chamber box may be open to accommodate the molding plate by simply placing the chamber box on the upper surface of the base in a state in which the molding plate is mounted on the upper surface of the base and include a gas supplier configured to supply an inert gas to the chamber box.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by describing exemplary embodiments thereof in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
A method of manufacturing a fine wire according to embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. As the invention allows for various changes and numerous embodiments, specific embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the written description. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific modes of practice, and it is to be appreciated that all changes, equivalents, and substitutes that do not depart from the spirit and technical scope of the present invention are encompassed in the present invention. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the description of the figures. In the accompanying drawings, sizes of structures may be greater than those of actual structures to clarify clearness of the present invention or may be smaller than those of the actual structure such that a schematic structure of the present invention is understood.
It will be understood that, although the terms “first,” “second,” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and a second element could similarly be termed a first element without departing from the scope of the present invention. Meanwhile, unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein are to be interpreted as is customary in the art to which this invention belongs. It should be further understood that terms in common usage should also be interpreted as is customary in the relevant art and not in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
The method of manufacturing a fine wire according to the present invention is based on a fact that a bead is generated during welding, and a wire is manufactured of the bead generated when a laser beam is projected in a state in which a metal powder of a desired material is applied. To this end, as illustrated in
Hereinafter, a method of manufacturing a fine wire according to the present invention will be described in more detail.
As illustrated in
First, the stacking of the metal powder (S110) is performed. In this process, the metal powder is stacked on an upper surface of a molding plate 110 to have a predetermined thickness as illustrated in
Then, the primary projecting of the laser beam (S120) is performed. In this process, as illustrated in
Then, the removing of the remaining metal powder S130 is performed. In this process, the remaining metal powder which remains after the wire W1 is formed of the metal powder is removed from the molding plate 110.
Then, the rotating of the wire (S140) is performed. In this process, the wire W1 primarily formed in the molding groove 111 of the molding plate 110 is rotated by 180° in a circumferential direction of the wire W1 as illustrated in
Then, the secondary projecting of the laser beam S150 is performed. In this process, the laser beam L1 is secondarily projected into the wire W1 to melt the wire W1 rotated by 180° as illustrated in
Then, the drawing of the wire (S160) is performed. In this process, as shown in (7) of
As described above, in the method of manufacturing a fine wire according to the embodiment of the present invention, the wire W1 is manufactured by simply projecting the laser beam L1 into the metal powder P1, the molding plate 110 in which the molding groove 111 is formed is actively used, the wire W1 formed by the primary projecting of the laser beam L1 is rotated to perform the secondary projecting of the laser beam L1 onto the wire W1, and then the drawing process is performed on the wire W1, thereby gradually improving the surface roughness, the roundness, and the hardness of the wire W1 so that the high quality wire W1 can be manufactured.
Next, an apparatus for manufacturing a fine wire designed to be suitable for performing the method of manufacturing a fine wire described above will be described below.
The apparatus for manufacturing a fine wire according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a molding plate 110, a base 120, a lift cylinder 130, a layering bar 140, a powder feeder 150, a projector 160 of a laser beam L1, a chamber box 170, and a gas supplier 180. Hereinafter, the apparatus for manufacturing a fine wire according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the above components.
As described above, a plurality of semicircular molding grooves 111 are formed in parallel on an upper surface of the molding plate 110. The molding plate 110 should be made of a material having a sufficiently high thermal conductivity such that a melted metal powder P1 is not scorched and adhered to the molding plate 110. In addition, as compared through
The upper surface of the base 120 serves to support the molding plate 110. In the base 120, an installation part 131 which supports the molding plate 110 is formed in a shape of a disk and installed to be recessed downward from the upper surface of the base 120. Thus, the base 120 includes a circular open portion 120a so that the installation part 131 is formed. The installation part 131 is installed to be supported by the lift cylinder 130 and be capable of moving up and down.
The lift cylinder 130 serves to support the disc-shaped installation part 131 of the base 120 from a lower side thereof and raise the installation part 131 as necessary.
The layering bar 140 serves to apply and stack the metal powder P1 on the upper surface of the molding plate 110 while reciprocating along the upper surface of the base 120. Since the molding plate 110 is in a state of being mounted on the installation part 131 recessed from the upper surface of the base 120, the molding plate 110 and the upper surface of the base 120 do not interfere with each other when the layering bar 140 applies the metal powder P1 on the molding plate 110.
The powder feeder 150 serves to supply the metal powder P1 to the layering bar 140. Preferably, the powder feeder 150 is coupled to the layering bar 140 to be moved together.
The projector 160 of the laser beam L1 is installed at a position spaced upward from the base 120 in a state in which the projector 160 is supported by a moving unit (not shown) to be capable of precisely moving along the molding groove 111 of the molding plate 110 mounted on the installation part 131 of the base 120. The projector 160 of the laser beam L1 capable of controlling a laser output is provided so as to change an intensity of the laser beam L1 according to a thickness of the wire W1 to be formed and a processing process.
The chamber box 170 serves to accommodate the molding plate 110 disposed on the upper surface of the base 120 in a state in which the chamber box 170 is sealed. To this end, an upper surface of the chamber box 170 is formed with a transparent lens through which the laser beam L1 transmits, and a lower surface thereof is open. When the lower surface of the chamber box 170 is open as described above, the chamber box 170 may accommodate the molding plate 110 therein even though the chamber box 170 is simply placed on the base 120 in a state in which the molding plate 110 is placed on the installation part 131 of the base 120.
The gas supplier 180 is connected to the chamber box 170 through a hose to supply an inert gas to the chamber box 170. The inert gas supplied by the gas supplier is preferably an argon gas, and the inert gas is used to prevent oxidation.
Next, an experiment in which a high quality wire W1 was actually produced by applying the apparatus for manufacturing a fine wire and the method of manufacturing a fine wire according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention will be described below.
In this experiment, a spherical SUS304 powder having an average size of 25 μm was used as a metal powder. As illustrated in
—Metal Powder Applying
A metal powder was applied on a copper molding plate, and a thickness of the applied metal powder was greater than a diameter of the molding groove of the molding plate by 0.1 mm as shown in Table 1 below.
—Primary Laser Beam Projection
A molding plate in which a width and a depth of a molding groove were respectively 0.4 mm and 0.2 mm was mounted on the molding apparatus, and a laser beam was primarily projected along the molding groove of the molding plate. In this case, a laser output was 25 W, a projection speed was 3.66 mm/s, and a supply flow rate of the argon gas was 8 L/min. A longitudinal cross-sectional area and a side cross-sectional area of a primarily formed wire after completion of the primary laser projection can be shown in
—Secondary Laser Beam Projection
The primarily formed wire was manually rotated by 180° in the molding groove of the molding plate by an operator. Then, the laser beam was secondarily projected along the molding groove of the molding plate. In this case, the laser output was 50 W, which was greater than that of the previous laser output, the projection speed was 3.66 mm/s, and the supply flow rate of the argon gas was 8 L/min. A longitudinal cross-sectional area and a side cross-sectional area of the secondarily formed wire after completion of the secondary laser projection can be shown in
—Drawing Process
The drawing process was performed on the secondarily formed wire using a die in which a width thereof was 0.4 mm. A longitudinal cross-sectional area and a side cross-sectional area of the wire on which the drawing process was performed can be shown in
Meanwhile, the molding plate was changed to a molding plate in which a width and a depth of a molding groove were respectively 1 mm and 0.5 mm, and the changed molding plate was mounted on the molding apparatus. Both laser outputs were changed to 200 W, and the laser beam was primarily and secondarily projected. When the drawing process was performed using a die in which a width was 0.8 mm, a shape of a wire was gradually improved as shown in
Meanwhile,
As described above, the present invention is advantageous in that a small quantity production of a fine wire having a desired cross-sectional area can be performed at low cost without being restricted by a material.
As described above, although the exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been described, various changes, modifications, and equivalents may be used according to the present invention. It is clear that the embodiments may be properly modified and applied to the present invention. Therefore, the above descriptions do not limit a scope of the present invention defined by a limitation of the scope of the following claims of the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2018-0167791 | Dec 2018 | KR | national |
