Constituent particles used for production of three-dimensional object, powder including constituent particles, and method for producing three-dimensional object from constituent particles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10322573-B2
Application number	US-201715467909-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 23, 2017
Priority date	Sep 24, 2014
Publication date	Jun 18, 2019
Grant date	Jun 18, 2019

Abstract

Provided are constituent particles containing a water-soluble material with high flowability in the form of powder, the constituent particles being capable of forming a support member that can be removed with a water-containing solvent in a process for producing a three-dimensional object. The constituent particles used for the production of a three-dimensional object each include a core and a shell that covers at least part of a surface of the core, the core containing a water-soluble material most abundantly, and a material contained in the shell most abundantly having a lower water solubility than the water-soluble material contained in the core.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. Constituent particles each containing at least one water-soluble material, each of the constituent particles comprising:
a core; and
a shell that covers at least part of a surface of the core,
the core containing the at least one water-soluble material most abundantly, and
a material contained in the shell most abundantly having a lower water solubility than the at least one water-soluble material contained in the core.

2. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein a coverage of the surface of the core by the shell is 40% or more and 95% or less.

3. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein each of the constituent particles contains the at least one water-soluble material in an amount of 70% or more by volume.

4. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein a percentage of the core of each of the constituent particles is 50% or more by volume.

5. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein a percentage of the at least one water-soluble material contained in the core is 50% or more by volume with respect to the entire core.

6. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one water-soluble material contained in the core is any of a water-soluble inorganic material, a water-soluble hydrocarbon, poly(alkylene oxide), poly(vinyl alcohol), and poly(ethylene glycol).

7. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein the material contained in the shell most abundantly is any of an organic material, a metal, an inorganic material, and an organic-inorganic hybrid material.

8. The constituent particles according to claim 7 , wherein the organic-inorganic hybrid material is a compound including a main skeleton composed of a siloxane bond and a side chain composed of an organic group.

9. The constituent particles according to claim 8 , wherein the side chain composed of the organic group is a methyl group.

10. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one water-soluble material contained in the core has a water solubility more than 1.

11. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein the material contained in the shell most abundantly has a water solubility less than 10.

12. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one water-soluble material contained in the core comprises a plurality of types of water-soluble materials, and
the material contained in the shell most abundantly has a lower water solubility than any of the water-soluble materials in the core.

13. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein the core or the shell contains a thermoplastic material.

14. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein the constituent particles have an average particle diameter of 1 μm or more and 100 μm or less on a volume basis.

15. The constituent particles according to claim 1 , wherein the constituent particles have an average circularity of 0.85 or more.

16. A powder, comprising:
the constituent particles according to claim 1 .

17. The powder according to claim 16 , wherein when the powder is sifted through a sieve with openings having a size 5 to 7 times the average particle diameter, a difference in weight between an oversize fraction of the powder as prepared and an oversize fraction of the powder that has been allowed to stand at a temperature of 25° C. and a humidity of 55% for 7 hours is 20% or less.

18. The powder according to claim 17 , wherein the change in weight is 5% or less.

19. A method for producing a three-dimensional object, comprising the steps of:
forming an item by disposing structural material particles and support material particles; and
removing a portion formed of the support material particles from the item by bringing the portion formed of the support material particles into contact with a water-containing solvent,
the constituent particles according to claim 1 being used as the support material particles.

20. The method according to claim 19 , wherein the step of forming an item by disposing structural material particles and support material particles includes a substep of applying thermal energy to the structural particles and the support material particles to fuse the structural particles and the support material particles, the substep being repeated multiple times.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Sugiyama Akira
• Hanyu Yukio
• Sato Naotake
• Takahashi Masahiko
• Saito Tomohiro

Classifications

• B33Y10/00 Primary

  Processes of additive manufacturing · CPC title

• B33Y70/00

  Materials specially adapted for additive manufacturing · CPC title

• G03G9/0819

  characterised by the dimensions of the particles · CPC title

• B29C64/153

  using layers of powder being selectively joined, e.g. by selective laser sintering or melting · CPC title

• G03G9/09371

  obtained otherwise than by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds · CPC title