Apparatus configured to fly light-absorbing material, apparatus configured to model three-dimensional modeled object, and method of flying light-absorbing material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11740453-B2
Application number	US-202016887366-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 29, 2020
Priority date	Jun 3, 2019
Publication date	Aug 29, 2023
Grant date	Aug 29, 2023

Abstract

An apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material, includes a unit configured to irradiate a light-absorbing material absorbing light with a laser beam corresponding to a light absorption wavelength of the light-absorbing material to fly the light-absorbing material. When a preceding beam radiation region and a following beam radiation region overlap, the following beam radiation region is irradiated with the laser beam such that a beam centroid position is outside the preceding beam radiation region.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material, comprising:
a unit configured to irradiate a light-absorbing material with a laser beam, a wavelength of the laser beam corresponding to a light absorption wavelength of the light-absorbing material to fly the light-absorbing material, the laser beam being a ring-shaped beam,
the light-absorbing material being a resin, metal, ceramic or liquid, and having a viscosity of 1 pascal-second or more,
the unit being configured to
irradiate the laser beam in rows along a scanning direction, and
create beam radiation regions including a preceding beam radiation region and a following beam radiation region, based on the preceding beam radiation region and the following beam radiation region overlapping, the unit is configured to irradiate the following beam radiation region with the laser beam such that a beam centroid position is outside the preceding beam radiation region, a beam centroid position of the beam radiation regions in the second row do not overlap in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction with a beam centroid position of adjacent beam radiation regions in the first row.

2. The apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 1 , wherein a scan speed of the unit in the scanning direction is greater than ½ of a product of a beam outer diameter of the laser beam and a scan frequency, the beam outer diameter being 1/e 2 of an exposure intensity distribution maximum value.

3. The apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 1 , wherein before the laser beam that is a main laser beam is emitted, pre-radiation of emitting the laser beam that is a sub-powered laser beam is performed.

4. The apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 3 , further comprising an acousto-optic modulator, wherein
the laser beam for the pre-radiation is generated by the acousto-optic modulator.

5. The apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 3 , further comprising a fiber laser configured to output the laser beam, wherein
injection current to a main amplifier of the fiber laser is modulated to generate the laser beam for the pre-radiation.

6. The apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 3 , wherein the main laser beam and sub-powered laser beam are centered at a same point.

7. The apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 3 , wherein the sub-powered laser beam is configured to contact the light-absorbing material before the main laser beam.

8. The apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 1 , wherein the unit is configured to perform a folding process in which a quantity of light of the laser beam irradiating a pixel region of an exposure portion, the pixel region including one or more pixels from a boundary between the exposure portion and a non-exposure portion in a drawing region, is added to a quantity of light of the laser beam irradiating another pixel region of the exposure portion, is performed.

9. The apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 8 , wherein the folding process is performed for a plurality of directions in an image.

10. An apparatus configured to model a three-dimensional modeled object, comprising the apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 1 .

11. The apparatus configured to model a three-dimensional modeled object according to claim 10 , further comprising:
a carrier configured to carry the light-absorbing material; and
a unit configured to heat a surface of a modeled object, wherein
the light-absorbing material carried by the carrier is flown to a surface of the modeled object heated and melted, by the apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material.

12. The apparatus configured to model a three-dimensional modeled object according to claim 11 , wherein
the unit configured to heat a surface of a modeled object comprises a unit configured to emit a laser beam for heating, and
a peak power of the laser beam for heating is smaller than a peak power of the laser beam configured to fly the light-absorbing material.

13. The apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 11 , wherein the carrier is a rotatable drum and is configured to carry the light-absorbing material on a peripheral during rotation of the carrier.

14. The apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 1 , wherein a position of maximum intensity of the ring-shape is different from the centroid position.

15. The apparatus configured to fly a light-absorbing material according to claim 14 , wherein the position of maximum intensity is two points on opposite sides of the centroid position and equidistant to the centroid position and form the ring-shape.

16. A method of flying a light-absorbing material, comprising irradiating a light-absorbing material with a pulsed laser beam, a wavelength of the laser beam corresponding to a light absorption wavelength of the light-absorbing material to fly the light-absorbing material, the laser beam being a ring-shaped beam, the light-absorbing material being a resin, metal, ceramic or liquid, and having a viscosity of 1 pascal-second or more,
the irradiating the laser beam including
moving the laser beam in a scanning direction along a first row,
moving the laser beam in the scanning direction along a second row, and
creating beam radiation regions including a preceding beam radiation region and a following beam radiation region, based on the preceding beam radiation region and the following beam radiation region overlapping, the laser beam is emitted to the following beam radiation region such that a beam centroid position is outside the preceding beam radiation region, a beam centroid position of the beam radiation regions in the second row do not overlap in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction with a beam centroid position of adjacent beam radiation regions in the first row.

Assignees

• Suhara Hiroyuki
• Fujita Takashi
• Takeuchi Atsushi
• Sakai Kohji
• Tamura Asato
• Kobashigawa Shohta
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Suhara Hiroyuki
• Fujita Takashi
• Takeuchi Atsushi
• Sakai Kohji
• Tamura Asato
• Kobashigawa Shohta

Classifications

• G02B26/124 Primary

  Details of the optical system between the light source and the polygonal mirror (G02B26/123, G02B26/127 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01B11/24

  for measuring contours or curvatures · CPC title

• G02F1/11

  based on acousto-optical elements, e.g. using variable diffraction by sound or like mechanical waves (acousto-optical deflection G02F1/33) · CPC title

• H01S3/067

  Fibre lasers · CPC title

• G02B26/10 Primary

  Scanning systems · CPC title