Independently temperature-controlled high-temperature selective laser sintering frame structure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10821675-B2
Application number	US-201916357791-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 19, 2019
Priority date	Oct 12, 2018
Publication date	Nov 3, 2020
Grant date	Nov 3, 2020

Abstract

The present disclosure belongs to the technical field of advanced manufacturing auxiliary equipment, and discloses an independently temperature-controlled high-temperature selective laser sintering frame structure, comprising a galvanometric laser scanning system, a powder feeding chamber, a forming chamber and a heat-insulating composite plate, and targeted optimization design is performed on the respective functional components. According to the invention, the independently temperature-controlled frame structure can simultaneously ensure the uniformity of the powder preheating temperature field of the powder feeding chamber platform and the uniformity of the processing temperature field of the forming chamber platform, so that powder on the powder feeding chamber platform can reach the sinterable temperature before being conveyed, and conveyance of cold powder to the sintered melt is avoided, thereby reducing the possibility of warpage of the parts while reducing actual sintering delay time and improving actual sintering efficiency. The independently temperature-controlled frame structure of the present disclosure is particularly suitable for high-temperature laser sintering of high-performance polymers such as polyaryletherketones and aromatic polyamides at 400° C.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An independently temperature-controlled high-temperature selective laser sintering frame structure, characterized in that the frame structure comprises a galvanometric laser scanning system, a powder feeding chamber, a forming chamber, and a heat-insulating composite plate,
wherein the galvanometric laser scanning system includes a laser for providing a working light source, and is integrally disposed above the forming chamber, so that the working light source is allowed to be irradiated onto powder on a forming chamber platform through a laser see-through window to perform selective laser sintering;
the powder feeding chamber is disposed on one side of the forming chamber, and includes a scraper, a powder feeding cylinder, a powder feeding chamber platform, and a powder falling slot, wherein the scraper moves in a horizontal direction that is an X-axis direction, during operation, so that an appropriate amount of powder on the powder feeding chamber platform is conveyed to the powder falling slot which is in controllable communication with the forming chamber, and then drops into a powder pick-up and conveyance device in the forming chamber; the powder feeding chamber is internally provided with a first infrared radiation heating device, which works as an auxiliary heating unit together with the powder feeding cylinder having a main heating function to perform an independently temperature-controlled preheating operation on the powder on the powder feeding chamber platform;
the forming chamber further includes a forming cylinder, a second infrared radiation heating device, and a powder leakage cylinder in addition to the forming chamber platform and the powder pick-up and conveyance device, wherein the powder pick-up and conveyance device is configured to spread the powder from the powder feeding chamber onto the forming chamber platform, and then selective laser scanning is performed on the powder by means of the working light source; the second infrared radiation heating device works as an auxiliary heating unit together with the forming cylinder having a main heating function to perform an independently temperature-controlled preheating operation on the powder on the forming chamber platform; the powder leakage cylinder is configured to receive excess powder during powder spreading for recycling and reusing;
the heat-insulating composite plate is disposed between the galvanometric laser scanning system and the powder feeding chamber, and between the powder feeding chamber and the forming chamber, to insulate them from each other; the heat-insulating composite plate is composed of a first composite plate for heat insulation in a direction perpendicular to a Y-Z plane and a second composite plate for heat insulation in a direction perpendicular to a X-Y plane, where Y-axis is defined as a horizontal longitudinal direction, and Z-axis is defined as a vertical direction; the first and second composite plates each include a plurality of graphite plates and heat-insulating material layers spaced apart from each other in a thickness direction to form a multi-interlayer structure; the first composite plate is arranged in the Y-Z plane, and its graphite plates are kept perpendicular to the powder feeding chamber platform; and the second composite plate is arranged in the X-Y plane, and its graphite plates are kept parallel to the powder feeding chamber platform.

2. The independently temperature-controlled high-temperature selective laser sintering frame structure according to claim 1 , characterized in that for the forming chamber, the forming chamber platform is set lower than the powder feeding chamber platform, so that the powder from the powder feeding cylinder is conveyed to the forming chamber platform through the powder falling slot in a powder falling manner.

3. The independently temperature-controlled high-temperature selective laser sintering frame structure according to claim 1 , characterized in that the powder pick-up and conveyance device includes symmetric powder spreading rollers, whose width, rotation speed, and steering are adjusted in real time by an external drive motor.

4. The independently temperature-controlled high-temperature selective laser sintering frame structure according to claim 1 , characterized in that the frame structure further comprises an infrared heating tube assembly comprising of multi-point adaptive infrared heating tubes distributed in multiple regions with respect to a laser scanning area, and these infrared heating tubes are independently temperature-controlled, thereby further improving the temperature uniformity inside the entire frame structure.

5. The independently temperature-controlled high-temperature selective laser sintering frame structure according to claim 1 , characterized in that the frame structure further comprises an optical thermal protection and cooling system, which is integrally disposed above the forming chamber and includes a first protective layer, a second protective layer, and a third protective layer successively laminated into a sandwich structure from bottom to top in a height direction,
wherein the first protective layer is disposed above the forming chamber in the form of an air-cooling structural layer, so that cold air is separated into multiple layers of laminar flow cold air through a multi-layer spoiler in the first protective layer to perform multi-layer heat exchange and heat insulation;
the second protective layer is disposed on the first protective layer in the form of a water-cooling structural layer, and includes a water-cooling substrate and a water-cooling temperature sensor; the water-cooling substrate has a built-in conformal cooling runner, and a cooling function is achieved by means of a cooling medium flowing through the conformal cooling runner; the water-cooling temperature sensor is configured to monitor an ambient temperature above the water-cooling substrate and provide monitoring feedback data to adjust an inflow temperature value of the circulated cooling medium in real time;
the third protective layer is disposed on the second protective layer in the form of an air-cooling structural layer, and includes two air ducts having an inner air duct and an outer air duct, disposed from inside to outside; the inner air duct is configured to accommodate all components of a laser optical module mounted on a horizontal panel and perform air cooling on them by means of cold air introduced via an air inlet of the inner air duct; and the outer air duct is configured to accommodate the inner air duct and insulate it from external heat sources.

Assignees

• Univ Huazhong Science Tech

Inventors

• Wen Shifeng
• Chen Peng
• Yan Chunze
• Yang Lei
• Li Zhaoqing
• Wu Hongzhi
• Shi Yusheng

Classifications

• B33Y30/00 Primary

  Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor · CPC title

• B29C64/295

  Heating elements · CPC title

• B29C64/25

  Housings, e.g. machine housings · CPC title

• B29C64/393 Primary

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B33Y50/02

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title