Nozzle-replaceable printing head for continuous fiber printing and printing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12533844-B2
Application number	US-202218552909-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 23, 2022
Priority date	May 13, 2022
Publication date	Jan 27, 2026
Grant date	Jan 27, 2026

Abstract

A nozzle-replaceable printing head for continuous fiber printing and a printing method are provided. The printing head includes a fixed bracket, a wire feeding module located at an upper part of the structure, an upper guide pipe, a shearing module located at a middle part of the structure, a lower guide pipe, a heat dissipation sleeve, a throat pipe, a heating coil, and a nozzle module located at a bottom of the structure, where a continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic resin matrix pre-impregnated composite wire coaxially penetrates through the other side of the printing head from top to bottom and is fed for printing. An adjustment groove with scales is configured to standardize adjustment on clamping and feeding states of pre-impregnated composite wires of different specifications.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A nozzle-replaceable printing head for continuous fiber reinforced composite additive manufacturing, comprising a fixed bracket, a wire feeding module located at an upper part of a structure, an upper guide pipe, a shearing module located at a middle part of the structure, a lower guide pipe, a heat dissipation sleeve, a throat pipe, a heating coil, and a nozzle module located at a bottom of the structure, wherein a continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic resin matrix pre-impregnated composite wire coaxially penetrates through a side of the printing head from a top to a bottom and is fed for printing;
wherein the upper guide pipe, the lower guide pipe, and the throat pipe are mounted on the fixed bracket through first threads, wherein a half-wrapped lower guide pipe has a hemispherical notch at an end, and when the shearing module performs a cutting operation, a cutting blade is configured to fit and cut into an inner wall of the half-wrapped lower guide pipe from the hemispherical notch of the half-wrapped lower guide pipe; the heat dissipation sleeve is mounted to an upper end of the throat pipe through second threads; and the heating coil is mounted to a lower end of the throat pipe.

2 . The nozzle-replaceable printing head for continuous fiber reinforced composite additive manufacturing according to claim 1 , wherein the wire feeding module comprises a feeding motor, a meshing gear, a U-groove bearing, a fixing bolt, and a fixing nut; the U-groove bearing is mounted with the fixing nut in an adjustment groove at an upper part of the fixed bracket through the fixing bolt; and a gap between the U-groove bearing and the meshing gear is allowed to be adjusted to fit different diameter specifications of the pre-impregnated composite wire or meet requirements for different clamping and feeding states of the pre-impregnated composite wire.

3 . The nozzle-replaceable printing head for continuous fiber reinforced composite additive manufacturing according to claim 1 , wherein the shearing module comprises a shearing motor, a cam, a push tool holder, a cutting blade, a reset spring, and a track sleeve holder; the cutting blade is fixed to the push tool holder through screws, and the reset spring is sleeved on the push tool holder; an end of the cutting blade is fed into an inner cavity of the track sleeve holder, an aperture of a sleeve of the track sleeve holder on a first side is larger than an aperture of the sleeve of the track sleeve holder on a second side, and the reset spring is limited to the second side; the cam is fixed to a shaft of the shearing motor through a key; and the cam cooperates with the reset spring to push the push tool holder back and forth under a drive of the shearing motor to drive the cutting blade to achieve a horizontal cutting operation.

4 . The nozzle-replaceable printing head for continuous fiber reinforced composite additive manufacturing according to claim 1 , wherein the nozzle module comprises a rotating motor, a nozzle support plate, and nozzles; the nozzle support plate is perpendicular to the throat pipe and mounted together with the rotating motor through keys; the nozzles are mounted on the nozzle support plate through threads; and the nozzles are evenly distributed on an arc with a rotating shaft of the rotating motor as a center and a distance between a center of the rotating shaft and a center of the throat pipe as a radius.

5 . The nozzle-replaceable printing head for continuous fiber reinforced composite additive manufacturing according to claim 4 , wherein the rotating motor drives the nozzle support plate to rotate a set angle, and a target nozzle is allowed to be switched to be below the throat pipe and coaxial with the throat pipe to complete a replacement of the nozzle of the printing head; the nozzles comprise a main nozzle and secondary nozzles, wherein the secondary nozzles comprise spare nozzles and nozzles for other purposes; the spare nozzles have a same specification as the main nozzle, and are configured for replacing a worn main nozzle; the nozzles for other purposes have inner diameters greater than an inner diameter of the main nozzle, and are configured for replacing pre-impregnated wires with other specifications during printing; upper and lower surfaces of the nozzle support plate have a planeness of ≤0.1 mm; the nozzle support plate is provided with 3-9 threaded hole positions for mounting the nozzles, and the threaded hole positions are evenly distributed every a fixed angle; and the nozzles have identical height and size specifications, and after mounting, tips of the nozzles are coplanar and parallel to the lower surface of the nozzle support plate.

6 . The nozzle-replaceable printing head for continuous fiber reinforced composite additive manufacturing according to claim 2 , wherein the adjustment groove and a head of the fixing bolt are marked with scales.

Assignees

• Univ Nanjing Aeronautics & Astronautics

Inventors

• Song Wenzhe
• Shan Zhongde
• Fan Congze
• Chen Yiwei
• Zheng Jinghua
• Song yaxing

Classifications

• B29C64/343

  Metering · CPC title

• B29C64/321

  Feeding · CPC title

• B29C64/118 Primary

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

• B33Y50/02 Primary

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B33Y30/00

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