JPH0698686B2 - Optical modeling method - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an optical molding method for producing a cured product having a target shape by irradiating a photocurable resin with a light beam. Further, the present invention relates to an optical modeling method for manufacturing a three-dimensional model by irradiating light on a photocurable resin flowing out from a nozzle so as to cure and cure the resin.

[Prior Art] The photocurable resin is irradiated with a light beam to cure the irradiated portion, and the cured portion is continuously continuous in the horizontal direction, and the photocurable resin is further supplied to the upper side to cure the resin in the same manner. By making the cured body continuous in the vertical direction by repeating, an optical modeling method for producing a cured body of the desired shape by repeating this is disclosed in JP-A-60-247515, 62-35966, 62-101408, etc. It is known. A method of using a mask instead of scanning a light beam is also known.

In addition, by causing the photocurable resin to flow out from the tip of the nozzle, irradiating the flowed out resin with light to cure the resin, and moving the nozzle along the cross section of the three-dimensional model to stack the cured resin. A method for manufacturing a three-dimensional model is also being developed in recent years.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Since the photocurable resin shrinks by about 5 to 20% upon curing, distortion and cracks are likely to occur in the solid body created by the above conventional method. In addition, this three-dimensional solid is inferior in dimensional accuracy, and is also low in strength because it is made of only resin.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The optical modeling method of the present invention is characterized in that a photocurable resin contains a filler.

[Operation] In the present invention, since the photocurable resin contains a filler,
Shrinkage of the photocurable resin during curing can be reduced. Also, the reinforcing effect of the cured resin can be obtained.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus for carrying out the first invention.

A photocurable resin 12 containing a filler is contained in a container 11 equipped with a stirrer 10, and a lens 15, a mirror 16 and a mirror rotation driving device 1 are provided so as to irradiate a light flux 14 toward a liquid surface 13 thereof.
An optical system including a light source 20 and the like is provided.

A table 21 is installed in the container 11, and the table 21 can be moved up and down by an elevator 22. The drive device 17 and the elevator 22 are controlled by the computer 23.

When manufacturing a cured product using the above equipment, first, the table 21
The upper substrate 21a is positioned slightly below the liquid surface 13, and the light beam 14 is scanned along the horizontal cross section of the target shape. This scanning is performed by computer controlled rotation of mirror 16.

After irradiating light on one horizontal cross section of the target shape (the part corresponding to the bottom surface in this case), the table 21 is slightly lowered, and the uncured photocurable fluid substance is placed on the cured product 24. After the inflow, light irradiation similar to the above is performed. By repeating this procedure, a cured product having a target shape can be obtained.

In the above embodiment, the table 21 is gradually lowered, but conversely, by adding the photocurable fluid substance,
13 may be raised gradually.

An optical fiber may be used as the optical system. further,
The optical system may be stationary and the container 11 may be moved to move the light beam 14 relative to the liquid surface 13.

In the above embodiment, the liquid surface is irradiated with light from above, but in the present invention, at least a required portion of the container 11 is made transparent, and light is irradiated from the bottom surface or the side surface of the container 11. You can In this case, the table may be gradually pulled upward or moved laterally in the molding process.

In the above embodiment, the cured product 24 is created by scanning the light beam 14, but the present invention is applied to the known mask method, and for example, the slit 25 corresponding to the cross section of the target shape as shown in FIG. You may use the mask 26 which has. Reference numeral 27 indicates a parallel light flux. Other symbols in FIG. 2 indicate the same members as in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view for explaining the second method of the present invention. Reference numerals 30 and 31 are storage tanks for storing the uncured photocurable resin and the filler, respectively, and the photocurable resin and the filler can be supplied to the mixing tank via the quantitative feeders 32 and 33. This mixing tank 34 is equipped with a stirrer 35. The mixing tank 34 is a pipe
It is connected to the nozzle 38 through the 36 and the pump 37, and the filling material-containing photocurable resin can be supplied to the nozzle 38. The nozzle 38 is a robot arm 40 of a robot device 39.
It is attached to the tip of and is movable in the X, Y, and Z directions, respectively. Note that X, Y, and Z indicate orthogonal three-dimensional coordinate axes.

Reference numeral 41 is a light source, which is connected to the nozzle 38 via an optical fiber 42 and is capable of irradiating the photocurable resin flowing out from the tip of the nozzle 38 with light. Reference numeral 43 is a quantitative feeder 3
2, 33, a pump 37, a robot device 39, and a light source 41.

Next, a method of manufacturing a three-dimensional model using the apparatus thus configured will be described.

First, the three-dimensional model 44 to be manufactured in the computer 43
Input the horizontal section data of. The horizontal cross-section data is a shape in a cross section taken along the horizontal direction so that the three-dimensional model 44 is so-called sliced for each required thickness in the height direction (Z direction). The three-dimensional model 44 of FIG. 1 is a model of an automobile, and the shape of the cross section 45 having a required thickness near the roof of the vehicle body is one horizontal cross section data. Three-dimensional model as this car model 44
Is formed as a stack of a large number of thin wall sections, and the shapes of all the sections are input to the computer 43.

The computer 43 controls the pump 37 and the robot device 39 based on the horizontal section data input to the computer 43. (Note that the quantitative feeders 32, 33 are controlled so as to always supply the material to the mixing tank 34 at a set rate.) In the embodiment shown in FIG.
The lowermost portion of the tire 47 is formed, and the upper portion and the bottom portion of the vehicle body 48 are formed in this order from the central portion of the tire 47 to the upper portion thereof, and the upper portion is sequentially stacked.

When forming a closed loop-shaped cross section indicated by reference numeral 45,
The nozzle 38 is moved so as to draw a loop-shaped trajectory.

The resin flowing out from the nozzle 38 is irradiated with light from a light projecting portion at the tip of the nozzle 38. As a result, the resin that has flowed out starts to cure immediately, and is stacked on the cross section 45 of the model 44 which has already been laminated and hardened to the required hardness.

In the present invention, as the photocurable fluid substance, various substances which are cured by light irradiation can be used, and examples thereof include modified polyurethane methacrylate, oligoester acrylate, urethane acrylate, epoxy acrylate, photosensitive polyimide, and aminoalkyd. be able to.

As the light, various kinds of light such as visible light and ultraviolet light can be used depending on the photocurable fluid substance used. The light may be normal light, but by using laser light,
It is possible to obtain the advantages that the energy level can be increased, the modeling time can be shortened, and the good light-collecting property can be used to improve the modeling accuracy.

In the present invention, as the filler, diatomaceous earth, metal oxides such as titanium oxide, beads, gold powder, in addition to powdered so-called fillers that have been added to the resin such as silver powder,
Short fibers can be used. Examples of the short fibers include vapor grown carbon fibers (carbon whiskers), SiC whiskers, boron carbide whiskers, glass fibers, alumina whiskers, metal charcoal fibers and the like. You may use together 2 or more types of said filler.

By mixing the filler with the photocurable resin, shrinkage of the photocurable resin at the time of curing is reduced, generation of distortion and cracks is suppressed, and dimensional accuracy of the created solid is enhanced. Further, particularly when a short fiber filler is adopted, the strength of the solid can be remarkably increased. Of course, the filler also acts as an extender and reduces the amount of the photocurable resin used, so when the cost is low, the material cost can be reduced. Moreover, if a colored material is used as the filler, a colored solid can be created. This filler is, for example, 1 to 1 with respect to 100 parts by weight of the photocurable resin.
A proportion of 00 parts by weight, especially 5 to 50 parts by weight, is preferred.

In the present invention, when short fibers are adopted as the filler particularly in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the short fibers are oriented in the resin flow direction when passing through the pipe 36 or flowing out from the nozzle 38, As a result, the short fibers are oriented in the direction along the wall surface of the created solid body. Therefore, a remarkably high reinforcing effect is exhibited.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a high-strength solid body having a small curing shrinkage, preventing distortion and cracks, and having high dimensional accuracy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are block diagrams for carrying out the method according to the embodiment of the present invention. 12 ... Photocurable fluid, 14 ... Luminous flux, 16 ... Mirror, 20 ... Light source, 21 ... Table, 22 ... Elevator, 34 ... Mixing tank, 38 ... Nozzle.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An optical modeling method including a step of irradiating a light-curable resin with light to cure the light-irradiated portion and stacking cured products, wherein the light-curable resin contains a filler. An optical modeling method characterized by that. 2. A photocurable resin is caused to flow out from the tip of a nozzle, and the flowed out resin is irradiated with light to cure the resin, and the nozzle is moved along the cross section of the three-dimensional model to cure the resin. A method for producing a three-dimensional model by stacking resins, wherein a photocurable resin containing a filler is used, which is an optical modeling method.