Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Utilizing transitory attached element or associated separate...
Patent
1996-05-14
1998-10-13
Bryant, David P.
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Utilizing transitory attached element or associated separate...
29425, 29466, 29468, 36447424, B23P 1700
Patent
active
058193880
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention pertains to a process for preparing a workpiece used as a prototype, as well as to a device for carrying out the process.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
It can be observed that the life of products is becoming shorter and shorter, so that the preparation of prototypes for further experiments or as display material is of significance for the further development of existing products or for the development of new products. Such a prototype can be prepared either as a functional model or as a design example. Various methods have been developed in the state of the art for preparing such prototypes, which can be used at least as design models. Such methods have become known, e.g., under the names stereolithography, photopolymerization, laser cutting of paper, polyester, or cellulose, 3-D modeling of wax or nylon, or laser sintering of PVC, wax, or nylon. However, these processes have substantial disadvantages in terms of the processability of the material used, the surface finish and the load-bearing capacity of the prototype prepared. Frequently these processes do not make it possible to prepare the prototype economically. The preparation of prototypes is regularly under pressure of time, it requires an efficient product, low production costs, and the ability to rapidly respond to changing demanding markets even in the case of complex parts. Moreover, very expensive special devices are needed for the prior-art procedures described for preparing prototypes. These devices involve high maintenance costs, and they very often can prepare only a first step for a prototype if the prototype is to be cast and the first step consequently represents a casting pattern which is prepared according to the prior-art processes. Aging phenomena (e.g., shrinkage due to drying), which occur on a prototype prepared in this manner, and the need for a comprehensive finishing need be taken into account as well.
DE-A-3711470 shows a process for preparing a three-dimensional model composed of a plurality of disks, e.g., a vehicle model, wherein the shape of the model is divided by a computer into disks. The disks are then cut out of a suitable plate material as a disk blank by means of laser beam and are assembled using, e.g., fixing rods, into an approximate contour model. The contour model subsequently smoothed manually or by means of laser beams.
Even though the contour of a model can be prepared with this process in a layered design, the disk blanks have a uniform thickness, which are subjected to a contour machining in their edge zones only to obtain the desired shape of the model.
EP-A-0 490 546 also shows a process for preparing a three-dimensional object composed of a plurality of relatively thin plates, wherein the individual plates are punched out of a strip-like material in the manner of a punching process and are stacked one upon the other to form the object. The surfaces of the plates which are adjacent to each other on the finished object are coated before the stacking process with an adhesive, e.g., wax or another adhesive material, in order to secure their relative position, which forms the contour of the object.
Both cylindrical hollow bodies with different diameter ranges and bodies having other geometric shapes can be prepared according to this process in a layered design, but the application of this process is limited to the preparation of objects which are not subjected to machining any more after the stacking of the individual plates.
A similar process, as well as a device for carrying out this process, are described in EP-A-0369909. The geometric data of the model to be prepared are entered here into a computer, which determines from these the manufacturing data of individual disks forming the model, and these data will then be used to control the work movements of a tool, e.g., a milling cutter of a 2-D or 3-D tool machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,503 also shows a process and a device for carrying out same for producing a workpiece to be made in a layered design. This wor
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Von Thomas Schatti, date unknown, Rapid Prototyping etabliert sich, Technische Rundschau 20/91.
Bryant David P.
MEC Maschinenbau Entwicklung Consulting GmbH
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