CN113863278B - Microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for moon surface hardening - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for moon surface hardening, which comprises a microwave sintering device, a mechanical arm device and a master controller, wherein the microwave sintering device comprises a microwave sintering machine body and a microwave sintering machine body; the microwave sintering device is used for performing microwave sintering on lunar soil or lunar soil mixture to realize field hardening of lunar surface; the mechanical arm device is used for controlling any space movement of the microwave sintering device; the master controller is used for information interaction between a user and the microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for the moon surface hardening so as to control the mechanical arm device to move and the microwave sintering device to operate, and unmanned construction of the moon surface is realized. The invention can utilize lunar surface in-situ resources to sinter and harden lunar soil or lunar soil mixture, has good forming and high efficiency, and can greatly reduce the transportation cost of the construction outside the land.

Description

Microwave sintering automation equipment for lunar surface hardening

technical field

The invention relates to the technical field of microwave sintering lunar soil and lunar surface hardening, in particular to a microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for lunar surface hardening.

Background technique

Since Chang'e-5 brought back the real lunar soil from the moon in 2020, my country's Chang'e lunar exploration project development plan has completed the three stages of "circling, falling, and returning", and there will be plans for "survey, research, and construction" in the future. In long-term missions such as the construction of future lunar bases, the safety of astronauts' life activities requires necessary infrastructure. However, in terms of the current international launch capabilities of spacecraft, it is time-consuming and labor-intensive to carry a large amount of materials from the ground for the construction of lunar bases. , and the use of in-situ resources and materials such as lunar soil will inevitably greatly reduce the mass and volume of launches from the earth.

With the development of lunar infrastructure research, higher requirements are put forward for the smoothness and reliability of the lunar surface foundation and site, and the microwave sintering of lunar soil materials provides an idea to solve this problem, and can achieve extremely high in-situ resources utilization rate. Microwave sintering is to use the dielectric loss of the material in the microwave electromagnetic field to heat the material to the sintering temperature to achieve sintering and densification. It is a non-traditional heating method that does not directly rely on the heat conduction and radiation of the heat source to heat the material. Compared with ground manufacturing, the in-situ microwave sintering molding technology of lunar soil is faced with a more harsh extreme environment of the lunar surface, more unique characteristics of lunar soil materials and more conservative molding process methods, leading researchers not only to reveal and explore the sintering and melting mechanism, The thermodynamic phase transition mechanism and structural defects such as pores in the sintering process still need to face and solve technical problems such as optimal lunar soil materials, suitable microwave frequency, ideal sintering temperature, suitable heating method, reasonable molding size, and development of practical principle prototypes.

As the future model and development trend of aerospace manufacturing, in-situ microwave sintering of lunar soil has high technical thresholds, related scientific problems need to be solved urgently, and corresponding equipment and processes are lacking.

Contents of the invention

The present invention aims to solve at least one of the technical problems existing in the prior art. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to propose a microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for lunar surface hardening, which can utilize lunar surface in-situ resources to sinter and harden lunar soil or lunar soil mixture, with good molding and high efficiency, and can greatly reduce the Transportation costs for off-site construction.

The microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for lunar surface hardening according to the embodiment of the present invention includes:

A microwave sintering device, the microwave sintering device is used for microwave sintering the lunar soil or the lunar soil mixture to realize the field hardening of the lunar surface;

A mechanical arm device, the mechanical arm device is used to control any spatial movement of the microwave sintering device;

The general controller is used for information interaction between the user and the microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for lunar surface hardening, so as to control the movement of the mechanical arm device and the operation of the microwave sintering device to realize monthly There is no one to build.

The microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for lunar surface hardening according to the embodiment of the present invention has the following advantages: First, it can realize sintering and hardening of pure lunar soil or lunar soil mixture, which is in line with the purpose of in-situ resource utilization of the lunar surface, greatly improving The transportation cost of extraterrestrial construction is reduced; second, the sintered and hardened pure lunar soil or lunar soil mixture has a dense structure, avoids pore defects, and has excellent mechanical properties, which can meet the material strength required by lunar scientific research stations, and the lunar soil or lunar soil mixture The sintering of soil mixture has a high degree of automation, which can realize the unmanned construction of scientific research stations for lunar surface solidification; third, microwave sintering of lunar soil or lunar soil mixture technology is fast in forming, high in efficiency, and well hardened and formed. Fourth, wide adaptability and strong environmental adaptability.

In some real-time examples, the microwave sintering device includes a furnace body, a microwave generator and a cloth compacting integrated assembly; the microwave generator is installed in the furnace body for generating and emitting microwaves to sinter lunar soil or soil mixture; the cloth compacting integrated assembly is installed in the furnace body for cloth and compaction of the lunar surface.

In some real-time examples, the microwave generator includes a microwave tube power supply capable of converting alternating current into direct current, and a microwave tube capable of converting direct current into microwaves.

In some real-time examples, the cloth compacting integrated assembly includes a cloth compacting integrated plate, a transmission screw, a pressure sensor and a cloth compacting controller;

The distribution and compaction integrated plate is located at the lower end of the furnace body, and is used for distributing the lunar soil in the area to be sintered from the internal silo, and for compacting the lunar soil or the lunar soil mixture in the area to be sintered;

The transmission screw is used to drive the cloth compacting integrated board to move up and down, provide pressure to the cloth compacting integrated board, and compact the lunar soil or the lunar soil mixture;

The pressure sensor is used to measure the pressure of the cloth compaction integrated board, and convert the pressure signal into an electrical signal and send it to the cloth compaction controller;

The cloth compacting controller is used to receive the pressure signal, and control the transmission screw to drive the cloth compacting integrated plate to move up and down to compact the lunar soil or lunar soil mixture in the area to be sintered to realize automatic operation.

In some real-time examples, the microwave sintering device further includes an insulation layer, the insulation layer covers the inner side of the furnace body, and the microwave generator is installed on the inner side of the insulation layer.

In some real-time examples, the microwave sintering device further includes a thermometer for real-time monitoring the temperature of the inner space of the thermal insulation layer.

In some real-time examples, the microwave sintering device further includes a heat conduction component, and the heat conduction component is used for recovering excess heat of microwave sintering.

In some real-time examples, the heat-conducting component includes a heat-conducting pipe and a heat-conducting medium, the heat-conducting pipe is arranged between the furnace body and the insulation layer, the heat-conducting medium circulates in the heat-conducting pipe, and the microwave The excess heat of sintering is exported out of the furnace body to realize energy recovery.

In some real-time examples, the robotic arm device includes a robotic arm and a robotic arm base; one end of the robotic arm is connected to the top of the microwave sintering device; the robotic arm base is connected to the other end of the robotic arm, The bottom of the base of the mechanical arm is provided with rollers.

In some real-time examples, the general controller is set in the base of the robot arm, and is used to accept user remote control preset commands or user remote control real-time commands and feed back real-time information to control the automatic process of microwave sintering.

Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

Description of drawings

The above and/or additional aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and comprehensible from the description of the embodiments in conjunction with the following drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is an overall schematic diagram of microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for lunar surface hardening according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the composition of the microwave sintering device in FIG. 1 .

Reference signs:

Microwave sintering automation equipment for lunar surface hardening 1000

Microwave sintering device 1

Furnace body 101 Microwave generator 102 Cloth compacting integrated assembly 103

Cloth compaction integrated board 1031 Transmission screw 1032 Cloth compaction controller 1033

Insulation layer 104 Thermometer 105 Heat conducting component 106

Robotic arm device 2 Robotic arm 201 Robotic arm base 202 Roller 203

Master Controller 3

Detailed ways

Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below, examples of which are shown in the drawings, wherein the same or similar reference numerals designate the same or similar elements or elements having the same or similar functions throughout. The embodiments described below by referring to the figures are exemplary only for explaining the present invention and should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

A microwave sintering automation equipment 1000 suitable for lunar surface hardening according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 .

As shown in FIG. 1 , a microwave sintering automation equipment 1000 suitable for lunar surface hardening according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a microwave sintering device 1 , a mechanical arm device 2 and a general controller 3 . Among them, the microwave sintering device 1 is used to carry out microwave sintering on the lunar soil or the lunar soil mixture to realize the field hardening of the lunar surface; the mechanical arm device 2 is used to control the arbitrary space movement of the microwave sintering device 1 to realize the automatic operation of the sintering equipment; The controller 3 is used for information interaction between the user and the microwave sintering automation equipment 1000 suitable for lunar surface hardening, so as to control the movement of the mechanical arm device 2 and the operation of the microwave sintering device 1 to realize unmanned construction of the lunar surface.

Specifically, the microwave sintering device 1 is used for microwave sintering the lunar soil or the lunar soil mixture to realize the hardening of the lunar surface. It can be understood that the role of the microwave sintering device 1 is to generate and emit microwaves, so that the lunar soil or lunar soil mixture in the area to be sintered absorbs microwaves, and the lunar soil or lunar soil mixture in the area to be sintered on the lunar surface is sintered by microwaves, It makes the sintered area structure dense, realizes the hardening of the lunar surface, and is beneficial to the construction of the lunar base. The lunar soil here refers to the pure lunar soil that has not been clothed, and the lunar soil mixture refers to the mixture formed by cloth in the pure lunar soil, such as adding adhesives (including but not limited to materials such as sulfur) to the pure lunar soil. The resulting mixture makes the lunar soil more dense after sintering under the adhesive.

The mechanical arm device 2 is used to control the arbitrary spatial movement of the microwave sintering device 1 to realize the automatic operation of the sintering equipment; Z-axis translation, rotation around the x-axis, rotation around the y-axis, and rotation around the z-axis meet the requirements for realizing the automation of microwave sintering lunar soil in space. For example, as shown in FIG. 1 , in the manipulator device 2 , the manipulator 201 is used to control the spatial movement of the microwave sintering device 1 , and at the same time, the roller 203 on the base 202 of the manipulator can make the whole equipment translate in a plane.

The master controller 3 is used for information interaction between the user and the microwave sintering automation equipment 1000 suitable for lunar surface hardening, so as to control the movement of the mechanical arm device 2 and the operation of the microwave sintering device 1 to realize unmanned construction of the lunar surface. It can be understood that, according to the set sintering conditions and sintering process, the general controller 3 can make the equipment automatically advance and run according to the route set in advance after microwave sintering in the area to be sintered to a certain temperature, and monitor the sintering process , to truly realize the unmanned construction of the lunar surface solidification. For emergencies, the controller can receive a signal to stop sintering, and send an alarm or feedback to the user.

The microwave sintering automation equipment 1000 suitable for lunar surface hardening according to the embodiment of the present invention has the following advantages: first, it can realize sintering and hardening for pure lunar soil or lunar soil mixture, which is in line with the purpose of in-situ resource utilization on the lunar surface, and is extremely The earth reduces the transportation cost of extraterrestrial construction; second, the sintered and hardened pure lunar soil or lunar soil mixture has a dense structure, avoids pore defects, and has excellent mechanical properties, which can meet the material strength required by lunar scientific research stations, and the lunar soil or The sintering of lunar soil mixture has a high degree of automation, which can realize the unmanned construction of scientific research stations for lunar surface solidification; third, the technology of microwave sintering of lunar soil or lunar soil mixture has fast forming, high efficiency, and good hardening and forming. Fourth, wide adaptability and strong environmental adaptability.

As shown in Figure 2, in some embodiments, the microwave sintering device 1 includes a furnace body 101, a microwave generator 102 and a cloth compacting integrated assembly 103; the microwave generator 102 is installed in the furnace body 101 for generating and emitting microwaves , to sinter the lunar soil or the lunar soil mixture; the cloth compacting integrated assembly 103 is installed in the furnace body 101, and is used for cloth and compacting the lunar surface. It can be understood that the function of the furnace body 101 is to protect the microwave sintering device 1, and at the same time reflect or shield the microwave, so that the microwave can reach the lunar soil or the lunar soil mixture in the area to be sintered as much as possible to reduce the loss of microwave energy; The function of the generator 102 is to generate and emit microwaves, so that the lunar soil absorbs microwaves to be sintered and solidified; the cloth compacting integrated component 103 is installed in the furnace body 101, which facilitates cloth and compaction of the lunar surface, making the sintered lunar surface more compact . Here, during actual use, the cloth and compaction integrated component 103 can carry out cloth and compacted lunar soil mixture, and then use microwave sintering, so that the sintered lunar surface structure is more dense. It is also possible not to carry out cloth but to compact the pure lunar soil, and then use microwave sintering.

In some embodiments, the microwave generator 102 includes a microwave tube power supply and a microwave tube. The microwave tube power supply can convert alternating current into direct current, and create conditions for the microwave tube to work according to the actual situation; the microwave tube can convert direct current into microwave, and utilize microwave Energy sintered lunar regolith or regolith mixture.

As shown in Fig. 2, in some embodiments, the cloth compacting integrated assembly 103 includes a cloth compacting integrated plate 1031, a cloth opening 10311, a drive screw 1032, a pressure sensor (not shown in the figure) and a cloth compacting controller 1033 .

Specifically, the cloth compacting integrated board 1031 is located at the lower end of the furnace body 101, and the cloth compacting integrated board is provided with a cloth distribution port 10311, and the cloth compacting integrated board is used to distribute lunar soil in the area to be sintered from the internal silo. , and for compacting the lunar soil or the lunar soil mixture in the area to be sintered; that is to say, the cloth compacting integrated board 1031 can distribute the lunar soil in the area to be sintered from the internal silo, so that the lunar soil in the adhesive (including but not Limited to materials such as sulfur) more dense after sintering. In the actual use process, the cloth and compaction integrated plate 1031 may or may not be clothed for pure lunar soil; at the same time, the cloth and compaction integrated plate 1031 also has a compacting function, which can treat lunar soil or lunar soil in the sintered area The mixture provides the set pressure, increases the compactness of the lunar soil, and reduces the porosity of the lunar soil. It should be noted that the cloth-compressed integrated board 1031 requires microwaves to pass through, and its material can be ceramics, glass, and the like.

The transmission screw 1032 is used to drive the integrated cloth compacting plate 1031 to move up and down, provide pressure to the integrated cloth compacting plate 1031, and compact the lunar soil or the lunar soil mixture.

The pressure sensor is used to measure the pressure of the cloth compacting integrated board 1031, and converts the pressure signal into an electrical signal and sends it to the cloth compaction controller 1033; the cloth compaction controller 1033 is used to receive the pressure signal and control the transmission screw 1032 to drive the cloth The compacting integrated plate moves up and down to compact the lunar soil or lunar soil mixture in the area to be sintered to realize automatic operation.

As shown in FIG. 2 , in some embodiments, the microwave sintering device 1 further includes an insulation layer 104 covering the inside of the furnace body 101 , and the microwave generator 102 is installed inside the insulation layer 104 . It can be understood that the insulation layer 104 is used for insulation inside the microwave sintering device 1 to prevent heat loss. The material of the insulation layer 104 can be grid cloth, glass fiber cotton, phenolic foam material and the like.

As shown in FIG. 2 , in some embodiments, the microwave sintering device 1 further includes a temperature measuring instrument 105 for real-time monitoring of the temperature of the space inside the insulation layer 104 . The thermometer 105 may be an infrared thermometer or a thermocouple resistance thermometer or the like.

As shown in FIG. 2 , in some embodiments, the microwave sintering device 1 further includes a heat conduction component 106 , and the heat conduction component 106 is used for recovering excess heat of microwave sintering, avoiding waste of heat, and improving energy utilization.

In some embodiments, the heat conduction component 106 includes a heat conduction pipe and a heat conduction medium, the heat conduction pipe is arranged between the furnace body 101 and the insulation layer 104, and the heat conduction medium circulates in the heat conduction pipe to guide excess heat from microwave sintering out of the furnace body 101 , to achieve energy recovery. The heat transfer medium can be heat transfer oil, water, molten salt, etc.

As shown in FIG. 2 , in some embodiments, the robotic arm device 2 includes a robotic arm 201 and a robotic arm base 202 . Wherein, one end of the mechanical arm 201 is connected with the top of the microwave sintering device 1 for spatially moving the microwave sintering device 1; The connecting device of the robotic arm 201 includes but is not limited to using a magnetic connecting device, a mechanical connecting device, and the like. The mechanical arm base 202 is connected with the other end of the mechanical arm 201, and the bottom of the mechanical arm base 202 is provided with a roller 203; The bottom of the manipulator base 202 is provided with rollers 203, which can facilitate the movement of the microwave sintering automation equipment 1000 suitable for lunar surface hardening as a whole on the lunar surface.

In some embodiments, the general controller 3 is set in the base 202 of the mechanical arm, and is used to accept user remote control preset instructions or user remote control real-time instructions and feed back real-time information to the user, so as to realize the automation of microwave sintering suitable for the user and lunar surface hardening The information exchange of equipment 1000 controls the automatic process of microwave sintering and realizes the unmanned construction of lunar surface solidification.

In the description of this specification, references to the terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "exemplary embodiments," "example," "specific examples," or "some examples" are intended to mean that the implementation A specific feature, structure, or characteristic described by an embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, schematic representations of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the described specific features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, those skilled in the art can understand that various changes, modifications, substitutions and modifications can be made to these embodiments without departing from the principle and spirit of the present invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

Claims (8)

1. An automated microwave sintering apparatus suitable for moon-surface hardening, comprising:

the microwave sintering device is used for performing microwave sintering on lunar soil or lunar soil mixture to realize field hardening of lunar surface;

the mechanical arm device is used for controlling any space movement of the microwave sintering device;

the master controller is used for information interaction between a user and the microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for the moon surface hardening so as to control the operation movement of the mechanical arm device and the operation of the microwave sintering device and realize the unmanned construction of the moon surface;

the microwave sintering device comprises a furnace body, a microwave generator and a material distribution and compaction integrated assembly; the microwave generator is installed in the oven body and used for generating and emitting microwaves so as to sinter the lunar soil or lunar soil mixture; the cloth compacting integrated assembly is arranged in the furnace body and is used for distributing and compacting the lunar surface;

the cloth compaction integrated assembly comprises a cloth compaction integrated plate, a transmission screw, a pressure sensor and a cloth compaction controller;

the material distribution compacting integrated plate is positioned at the lower end of the furnace body and used for distributing lunar soil of a region to be sintered from an internal bin and compacting lunar soil or lunar soil mixture of the region to be sintered;

the transmission screw is used for driving the cloth compaction integrated plate to move up and down, providing pressure for the cloth compaction integrated plate and compacting lunar soil or lunar soil mixture;

the pressure sensor is used for measuring the pressure of the cloth compaction integrated plate, converting a pressure signal into an electric signal and transmitting the electric signal to the cloth compaction controller;

the cloth compaction controller is used for receiving the pressure signal and controlling the transmission screw to drive the cloth compaction integrated plate to move up and down so as to compact lunar soil or lunar soil mixture in the area to be sintered, and automatic operation is achieved.

2. The automated microwave sintering apparatus suitable for moon facing hardening according to claim 1, wherein the microwave generator includes a microwave tube power supply and a microwave tube, the microwave tube power supply being capable of converting alternating current to direct current, the microwave tube being capable of converting direct current to microwaves.

3. The microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for the moon surface hardening according to claim 1, wherein the microwave sintering device further comprises an insulating layer covering the inner side of the furnace body, and the microwave generator is installed at the inner side of the insulating layer.

4. The automatic microwave sintering equipment suitable for moon face hardening according to claim 3, wherein the microwave sintering device further comprises a temperature measuring instrument for monitoring the temperature of the inner space of the insulating layer in real time.

5. The automated microwave sintering equipment suitable for moon surface hardening according to claim 3, wherein the microwave sintering device further comprises a heat conducting component for recovering excess heat of microwave sintering.

6. The microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for moon surface hardening according to claim 5, wherein the heat conduction component comprises a heat conduction pipe and a heat conduction medium, the heat conduction pipe is arranged between the furnace body and the heat insulation layer, the heat conduction medium circulates in the heat conduction pipe, and excess heat of microwave sintering is led out of the furnace body, so that energy recovery is realized.

7. The microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for moon face hardening according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the robot arm device comprises a robot arm and a robot arm base; one end of the mechanical arm is connected with the top of the microwave sintering device; the mechanical arm base is connected with the other end of the mechanical arm, and the bottom of the mechanical arm base is provided with rollers.

8. The microwave sintering automation equipment suitable for selenographic sclerosis according to claim 7, characterized in that the master controller is arranged in the mechanical arm base and is used for receiving a user remote preset instruction or a user remote real-time instruction and feeding back real-time information to control the automation process of microwave sintering.

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