Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes – Stereolithographic shaping from liquid precursor
Patent
1994-09-20
1996-07-16
Tentoni, Leo B.
Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes
Stereolithographic shaping from liquid precursor
118429, 118620, 118712, 156 64, 1562728, 1562735, 1562755, 1563071, 156378, 1563796, 250432R, 2504921, 264 401, 264308, 359204, 425135, 4251744, 427 8, 427510, 427512, 427553, 427554, 427555, B29C 3508, B29C 4102, B29C 4152
Patent
active
055364675
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing a three-dimensional object.
Such a method or apparatus, resp., is known from document EP-A-0 171 069 wherein the support is lowered within a bath of liquid resin which can be polymerized, so as to form a layer of liquid resin, and this layer is thereafter polymerized or solidified, resp., at the points thereof corresponding to the object by irradiation with a laser beam. Since the polymerization requires a determined reaction time, the laser beam can not be scanned across the layer at any speed whatsoever and the production time can therefore not be freely reduced.
It is the object of the invention to reduce the time required for the production of the object.
In the following the invention will be described with reference to an embodiment in connection with the figure which shows a partly sectioned schematic representation of an embodiment of the inventive apparatus.
A top open tank 1 is filled with a light-curable liquid resin material 3 up to a level or surface 2. Within the tank 1 and the volume of the resin 3 there is a support 4 having a substantially plane and horizontal support plate 5 which is parallel to the surface 2 and may be displaced and positioned in direction perpendicular to the surface 2 and to the support plate 5, resp., by means of a schematically indicated elevation adjustment device 6. The elevation adjustment device is connected with a control device 7 for controlling the displacement position.
The object 8 which is formed by a plurality of layers 8a, 8b, 8c and 8d in the manner described below is on the support plate.
An irradiation device 9 for solidifying the uppermost layer 8d adjacent to the surface 2 comprises an illumination device 10 having a radiation source 11 which generates a focussed or directed beam 13 through a lense system 12. Preferably the radiation source 11 is a light source such as a laser, but may be any other source of electromagnetic radiation. In the region above the tank 1 or above the surface 2, resp., a plurality of, for example three, mirrors 14, 15, 16 which are each semi-transparent are disposed one behind the other in direction of the beam 13. The mirrors 14, 15, 16 are each independently mounted on gimbals and can be pivoted by means of schematically indicated driving devices 17, 18, 19 in such a manner that the beam 13 impinging on the mirrors 14, 15, 16 can be positioned by the mirrors 14, 15, 16 as respective independent reflected beams 20, 21, 22 within predetermined regions of the surface 2. Alternatively also two rotating mirrors, a respective one for each coordinate direction, may be used in conventional manner.
The driving devices 17, 18, 19 are each connected with the control device 7 for controlling the direction of the beams 20, 21, 22.
In operation data about the shape of the object 8 as obtained by a design program or the like are first stored within the control device 7. For producing the object 8 those data are processed so that the object is decomposed into a large number of horizontal layers which are each thin as compared to the object dimension and form data for each layer are provided.
For producing the first layer 8a the control device 7 controls the elevation adjustment device 6 to position the surface of the support plate 5 to a predetermined elevation below the surface 2 corresponding to the thickness of the layer 8a. Hence, a liquid resin layer having a thickness corresponding to the desired layer 8a exists between the surface of the support plate 5 and the surface 2.
Thereafter the control device 7 controls the irradiation device 9 and in particular the driving devices 17, 18, 19 so as to direct the beams 20, 21, 22 reflected from each corresponding mirror 14, 15, 16 onto predetermined regions of the layer 8a and to thereby solidify those regions. For example a boundary region of the first layer 8a can be solidified by a first beam 21 deflected by the intermediate mirror 15 and the central region of the layer 8a can be solidified by the other two beams 20, 22. I
REFERENCES:
patent: 3732796 (1973-05-01), Marcy
patent: 4561717 (1985-12-01), Kataoka et al.
patent: 5120476 (1992-06-01), Scholz
patent: 5139711 (1992-08-01), Nakamura et al.
European Search Report (dated Mar. 2, 1994).
Langer Hans J.
Reichle Johannes
Brown Donald
EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems
Neuner George W.
Tentoni Leo B.
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