Patent Application
20160023467
1. Technical Field
The technical field relates to a printing head module, and more particularly to a printing head module having a wiper unit.
2. Description of Related Art
With advancement in computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), a three dimensional printing technology (3-D printing technology) has been developed in the manufacturing industry, thereby rapidly fabricating products from an original design concept. The 3-D printing, in fact, is a general term of a series of rapid prototyping (RP) techniques, and the basic principle thereof, and the concept thereof is a laminate manufacturing, wherein a rapid prototyping machine is used to form cross-sectional shapes of a workpiece in the X-Y plane through scanning, shift intermittently at a layer thickness in the Z coordinates, and ultimately from 3-D objects. The 3-D printing technology is unrestrictedly applicable for the geometric shapes and the RP technology produces excellent outputs in particular for complex parts, which saves efforts and processing time significantly. As a result, the digital 3-D printing technology is capable of presenting an object of a digital 3-D model designed by means of computer-aided design (CAD) software under a shortest time requirement for the user to touch and actually feel the geometry of the model, or even to do possible functional test thereof.
When a printing head module is disposed with a plurality of printing heads, the printing heads are alternatively operated during the 3-D printing process. However, as the printing head is switched from one to another, often there is still residual modeling material left on the nozzle tips of the printing head which just finishes the printing task. Accordingly, the residual modeling material left on the nozzle tips of those printing heads might drop on the printing surface, which cause the contamination issues on the printing objects. Therefore, the printing quality of the 3-D printing process with multiple printing heads is decreased.
The present disclosure is directed to a printing head module, wherein the printing head module includes the wiper unit for wiping the residual modeling material left on the nozzle tips of the printing heads and covering those nozzles of the printing heads when the printing heads are not in operation.
One of exemplary embodiments provides a printing head module configured to form a three-dimensional (3-D) object layer by layer with a modeling material on a carrying surface of a base. The printing head module includes a bracket, a plurality of printing heads, a pivot shaft, a wiper unit. The bracket includes a plurality of the through holes. The printing heads are parallely aligned with each other and disposed in the through holes respectively, each of the printing heads comprising a nozzle for extruding the modeling material. The pivot shaft connected to the bracket is adapted to rotate the printing heads to a target position for dispensing the modeling material, the through holes disposed around the pivot shaft, such that the printing heads disposed therein surrounds the pivot shaft. The wiper unit includes a holder, a plurality of wipers, and a wiper opener. The holder connected to the pivot shaft to be rotated with the bracket and the printing heads. The holder includes a plurality of openings respectively located beneath and corresponding to the nozzles. The wipers are rotatably connected to the holder and disposed correspondingly to the openings. Each of the wipers adapted to rotate between an open position for exposing the corresponding opening and a block position for covering the corresponding opening. The wiper opener is disposed at the target position to interfere with the wiper rotated to the target position, so as to drive the corresponding wiper to rotate to the opening position for the corresponding printing head to extrude the modeling material through the opening, the wiper opener releasing the interference when the corresponding wiper passes the target position, so that the corresponding wiper rotate back to the blocking position to wipe off the residual modeling material from the tip of the nozzle.
Based on the aforementioned description, the wiper unit of the printing head module is correspondingly disposed underneath a plurality of printing heads, so as to wipe off and collect the residual modeling material left on the tips of the nozzles of the printing heads not in use, in order to avoid the residual modeling material dropping from the nozzle of the printing head not in use during the printing process. Therefore, with the configuration of the wiper unit, the residual modeling material left on the nozzle tips could be wiped off and collected, and the nozzle tips of the printing heads not in use could be covered to prevent the contamination of the surface of base and the printing objects, and so as to enhance the printing quality of the 3-D printing objects. Moreover, the processes of cleaning and maintenance of the nozzle tips could also be simplified due to the configuration of the wiper unit.
To make the above features and advantages of the disclosure more comprehensible, several embodiments accompanied with drawings are described in detail as follows.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide further understanding, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
It is to be understood that both of the foregoing and other detailed descriptions, features, and advantages are intended to be described more comprehensively by providing embodiments accompanied with figures hereinafter. In the following embodiments, wordings used to indicate directions, such as “up,” “down,” “front,” “back,” “left,” and “right”, merely refer to directions in the accompanying drawings. Therefore, the directional wording is used to illustrate rather than limit the exemplary embodiments. The present embodiment is approximately identical to the second embodiment, and same or similar reference numerals used in the present embodiment and in the second embodiment represent the same or similar elements.
Furthermore, the printing head module 100 is movably disposed above the base 200, and configured to slide back and forth along a sliding rail and the base 200 may also move relative to the printing head module 100. The 3-D printing apparatus is configured to read and process the digital 3-D model information, which controls the relative movements of the printing head module 100 to the base 200. Accordingly, the printing head module 100 may be moved along the sliding rail according to the digital 3-D model information, and the printing head module 100 is configured to dispense the modeling material layer-by-layer on the base 200 during the movement thereby forming a plurality of laminated material layers. The laminated material layers are stacked over one another to form the 3-D object.
After the printing task of the aforementioned printing head 120 is completed, the control unit 160 controls the pivot shaft 130 to rotate the bracket 110, so as to switch the next printing head 120 to the target position L1 for the following printing tasks. The wiper unit 140 disposed underneath the printing heads 120 and connected to the pivot shaft 130 through the holder 142 is correspondingly rotated. As such, when the wiper 144 corresponding to the previously-used printing head 120 is rotated till it passes the target position L1, the wiper opener 146 releases its interference with the corresponding wiper 144, so that the corresponding wiper 144 rotates back to the block position P1 to wipe off the residual modeling material 30 from the tip of the nozzle 124 of the previously-used printing head 120, and the nozzle 124 of the previously-used printing head 120 is covered by the corresponding wiper 144.
Specifically, each of the wipers 144 further includes an extension portion 144a and a flat portion 144b as shown in
In other words, when one of the printing heads 120 is rotated to the target position L1, the corresponding wiper 144 is rotated to the opening position P2 to expose the corresponding opening 147 by the wiper opener 146 located at the target position L1, such that the printing head 120 rotated to the target position L1 is suitable for extruding the modeling material 30 through the corresponding opening 147. When one of the printing heads 120 is rotated till it passes through the target position L1, the corresponding wiper 144 is back to the block position P1 for wiping off the residual modeling material 30 from the tip of the nozzle 124. In addition, the holder 142 may include a plurality of the carrying positions 148 disposed beneath and the openings 147 disposed on the carrying portions 148 respectively.
Referring back to
Furthermore, in the present embodiment, different modeling materials such as clay or other suitable materials may be filled into the different printing heads 120. The pivot shaft 130 may be coupled to the control unit 160, therefore, the bracket 110 along with the printing heads 120 and wiper unit 140 are controlled by the control unit 160 for adjusting the rotating direction, rotating rates and the interval time between each of the printing process. Accordingly, a digital 3-D model could be read by the control unit 160 for executing the printing process. The digital 3-D model might include the rotating parameters of pivot shaft 130, the moving parameters of the printing head module 100, and the types of materials applied in different stages of the printing process.
Furthermore, since the dispensing amount of the modeling material 30 could be obtained by the control unit 160, as the cartridge 122 of the printing head 120 in use is running out of the modeling material, the control unit 160 may drive pivot shaft 130 to rotate and switch the printing head 120 in use to the other printing heads 120. While the wiper unit 140 may be rotated along with the printing heads 120, the wiper 144 underneath the printing head 120 which has completed the printing process and pass by the target position L1 will restore to its block position P1 through the torsion component 145, and the wiper 144 underneath the printing head 120 rotating to the target position L1 for the following printing process will be constrained to the opening position P2 by the wiper opener 146.
In sum, the wiper unit of the printing head module is correspondingly disposed underneath the nozzle of the printing heads, so as to wipe off and collect the residual modeling material left on the tips of the nozzles of the printing heads not in use, in order to avoid the residual modeling material dropping from the nozzle of the printing head not in use during the printing process. Accordingly, the issues of material contamination during the 3-D printing process for the printing head module having multiple printing heads could be reduced. Therefore, the printing quality of the printing head module having multiple printing heads could be greatly enhanced without reducing its speed and effectiveness. Moreover, the wiper unit may further reduce the requiring effort in cleaning the nozzle tips and the maintenance of printing head module. Therefore, in a 3-D printing process, the interval time between the printing processes with different modeling materials could be minimized, which further enhance the efficiency and convenience of the printing head module of the 3-D printing apparatus.
Although the disclosure has been described with reference to the above embodiments, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that modifications to the described embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit of the disclosure. Accordingly, the scope of the disclosure will be defined by the attached claims and not by the above detailed descriptions.
