Three-dimensional printer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017355136-A1
Application number	US-201715588699-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 8, 2017
Priority date	Jun 14, 2016
Publication date	Dec 14, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A three-dimensional (3D) printer includes a powder layer forming device ( 2 ) uniformly spreading material powder in a molding space (R) in a chamber ( 1 ) to form a powder layer ( 8 ), and a laser irradiation device ( 4 ) irradiating a laser beam (L) on a predetermined irradiation region of the powder layer to form a sintered layer ( 9 ). The powder layer forming device includes a recoater head ( 23 ) discharging the contained material powder to the molding space, a blade ( 31, 33 ) leveling the discharged material powder to a predetermined thickness, and a holding member ( 35, 37 ) holding the blade on the recoater head, wherein the blade is flexible, and the blade and the holding member are nonmagnetic and electrically conductive.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A three-dimensional (3D) printer, comprising:
a chamber covering a molding space; a powder layer forming device uniformly spreading material powder in the molding space for each divided layer obtained by dividing a desired three-dimensional molded object at predetermined heights, so as to form a powder layer; and a laser irradiation device irradiating a laser beam on a predetermined irradiation region of the powder layer to form a sintered layer, wherein
the powder layer forming device comprises:
a recoater head containing the material powder and discharging the material powder to the molding space;
a blade leveling the discharged material powder to a predetermined thickness; and
a holding member holding the blade on the recoater head, wherein
the blade is flexible, and
the blade and the holding member are nonmagnetic and electrically conductive.

2 . The three-dimensional printer according to claim 1 , wherein the blade is formed of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic, and the holding member is formed of austenitic stainless steel.

3 . The three-dimensional printer according to claim 2 , wherein a tip of the blade is brush-shaped and has surface roughness equal to or less than a value of an average particle size of the material powder.

4 . The three-dimensional printer according to claim 1 , wherein the material powder is metal powder.

5 . The three-dimensional printer according to claim 4 , wherein the material powder has an average particle size of 5 to 50 μm.

6 . The three-dimensional printer according to claim 1 , wherein a tip of the blade is brush-shaped and has surface roughness equal to or less than a value of an average particle size of the material powder.

Assignees

• Sodick Co Ltd

Inventors

• Matsumoto Itaru

Classifications

• B22F12/41

  characterised by the type, e.g. laser or electron beam · CPC title

• B22F12/67

  Blades · CPC title

• B22F12/49

  Scanners · CPC title

• B22F10/77

  of gas · CPC title

• B22F10/28

  Powder bed fusion, e.g. selective laser melting [SLM] or electron beam melting [EBM] · CPC title