Polymer multi-material high-flexibility laser additive manufacturing system and method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11110663-B2
Application number	US-201916248296-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 15, 2019
Priority date	Jul 28, 2018
Publication date	Sep 7, 2021
Grant date	Sep 7, 2021

Abstract

The invention belongs to the field of filament additive manufacturing, and discloses a polymer multi-material high-flexibility laser additive manufacturing system and a method thereof. The system comprises a first robot arm, a second robot arm, a positioner, a rotational extrusion nozzle in which a plurality of extrusion modules are disposed and a laser, each extrusion module is used for extruding one kind of filament, and the rotational extrusion nozzle is connected with the first robot which drives the rotational extrusion nozzle to move according to a preset trajectory; the laser is connected with the second robot, and is used for emitting a laser to fuse the filament extruded from the rotational extrusion nozzle, and through the cooperative motion of the first robot and the second robot, the extrusion and fusion of the filament are performed synchronously; the positioner serves as a forming mesa, and the rotation of the positioner cooperates with the motions of the two robots. With the present invention, problems such as easy blocking and short service life of the extrusion nozzle in the FDM forming are solved, thereby ensuring high flexibility of the manufacturing system and achieving the extrusion forming of the multi-material filaments.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A polymer multi-material high-flexibility laser additive manufacturing system, wherein that wherein the system includes a first robot, a second robot separated from the first robot, a positioner, a rotational extrusion nozzle and a laser, wherein:
the rotational extrusion nozzle is used for extruding filaments and is provided with a plurality of extrusion modules, each extrusion module is used for extruding one kind of filament, the position of the respective extrusion module is adjusted by rotating the rotational extrusion nozzle to achieve switching of the extruded filaments, the rotational extrusion nozzle is connected with the first robot, and the first robot moves according to a preset trajectory to drive the rotational extrusion nozzle to move, so that switching of the extrusion filaments is achieved;
the laser is connected with the second robot, and is used for emitting a laser to fuse the filament after the filament is extruded from the rotational extrusion nozzle, and through the cooperative motion of the first robot and the second robot, the extrusion and fusion of the filament are performed synchronously and separately;
the positioner serves as a processing mesa, and a forming angle is adjusted by rotating the positioner to cooperate with motions of the two robots simultaneously, and motion trajectories of the positioner, the first robot and the second robot cooperate with each other without mutual interference.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the positioner includes a horizontal workbench, a horizontal rotating shaft and a vertical rotating shaft, and the horizontal workbench rotates around the horizontal and vertical rotating shafts to achieve the adjustment of the forming angle.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the rotational extrusion nozzle includes a rotary plate, a fixed plate and the plurality of extrusion module, wherein the plurality of extrusion module are disposed in the fixed plate that is connected with the rotary plate, the rotary plate rotates to drive the fixed plate to rotate, and then to drive the extrusion module to rotate.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the first robot and the second robot are identical in structure, and each employs a multi-axis robot.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the laser generated by the laser is transmitted by an optical fiber, and parameters of the laser are adjustable in real time, so that when the kind of the material changes, the parameters of the laser are adjusted in real time to accommodate the needs of different filaments.

6. An additive manufacturing method using the system according to claim 1 wherein the method comprises the following steps of:
(a) constructing a three-dimensional model of a product to be fabricated, performing voxel slicing on the three-dimensional model, and obtaining a set of all data points, with information of position and material, of the entire product;
(b) setting motion trajectories of the first robot and the second robot, a rotation order of the rotational extrusion nozzle and a motion trajectory of the positioner according to the set of data points of the product;
(c) extruding different filaments in sequence according to the rotation order of the rotational extrusion nozzle while driving the rotational extrusion nozzle by the first robot to move according to the motion trajectory, and fusing the extruded filaments in real time by the laser driven by the second robot, wherein the positioner adjusts its angle correspondingly according to its motion trajectory to accommodate the motions of the first robot and the second robot, in which way the extrusion fusing formation of all points in the set of all data points is achieved, that is, the process of point-by-point formation is achieved, thereby obtaining the product.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the first robot has six degrees of freedom, the second robot has six degrees of freedom, the positioner has two degrees of freedom, and the laser is transmitted by an optical fiber.

8. The system according to claim 7 , wherein the system is configured to perform voxel slicing on a three-dimensional model of a product to be fabricated.

Assignees

• Univ Huazhong Science Tech

Inventors

• Yan Chunze
• Wu Hongzhi
• Shi Yusheng
• Wen Shifeng
• Zhang Lichao

Classifications

• B29C64/268

  using laser beams; using electron beams [EB] · CPC title

• B33Y30/00

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

• B29C64/118 Primary

  using filamentary material being melted, e.g. fused deposition modelling [FDM] · CPC title

• B29C64/209

  Heads; Nozzles · CPC title

• B29C64/20

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