CN114115765A

CN114115765A - Multi-head cooperation FDM printing control framework and printing system

Info

Publication number: CN114115765A
Application number: CN202111442743.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 严鹏飞; 严彪; 许宏涛
Original assignee: Shanghai Zhichi Intelligent Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Zhichi Intelligent Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-11-30
Filing date: 2021-11-30
Publication date: 2022-03-01

Abstract

The invention relates to a multi-head collaborative FDM printing control framework which is used for carrying out coordinated control on an array execution mechanism of an FDM printer, wherein the array execution mechanism comprises a plurality of extrusion modules, the control framework comprises a main control microprocessor and a plurality of independent execution MCUs (microprogrammed control units) connected with the main control microprocessor, each execution MCU is connected with a plurality of extrusion modules, and the main control microprocessor stores a corresponding relation table of each execution MCU and each extrusion module; the master control microprocessor includes a master control program, and the operations performed when the master control program is called include: reading an FDM printing task instruction input from the outside; based on the corresponding relation table, performing task planning and division on the FDM printing task instruction, and sending the divided subtask instruction to a corresponding execution MCU; and the execution MCUs cooperatively complete the whole printing task based on the subtask instruction. Compared with the prior art, the printing method has the advantages of effectively improving the printing efficiency and the like.

Description

Multi-head cooperation FDM printing control framework and printing system

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of 3D printing, in particular to a multi-head cooperation FDM printing control framework and a printing system.

Background

The FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) process was successfully developed by Scott Crump, an American scholars, in 1988. The material of FDM is typically a thermoplastic material such as wax, ABS, nylon, etc. The material is supplied in the form of filaments. The material is heated and melted in the spray head, the spray head moves along the section outline and the filling track of the part, meanwhile, the melted material is extruded out, and the material is rapidly solidified and is coagulated with the surrounding material.

FDM is the most cost-effective way to produce customized thermoplastic parts and prototypes. Due to the high availability of this technology, it also has the shortest lead time-as fast as the next day delivery. FDM has a wide selection of thermoplastic materials available for prototyping and certain functional applications.

However, the single-head extrusion efficiency of the conventional fine-printed filament material FDM printer (FFF printer) is too low, the conventional machine type cannot print too large objects (generally less than 50cm square), otherwise the processing time can reach several weeks, and the original speed advantage of 3D printing is lost; for this reason, the granular material FDM printer FGF suitable for large-scale printing is produced, the printers directly pass through granular raw materials, the speed can reach hundreds of times of that of FFF printers, but the diameter of an extrusion head of the FGF reaches several to tens of millimeters, the precision and the surface quality are seriously reduced, so that printed parts often need more manual post-processing, and the cost and efficiency advantages also have great challenges. Therefore, the FGF printing method cannot solve the speed problem of the FDM printer well. However, in the current dual-head printer with multi-head cooperative work designed only for printing support, only one head is in work (printing one of the solid part or the supporting part) in actual work, and the multi-head simultaneous work is only simple replication and cannot realize the cooperative effect.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to overcome the defects in the prior art and provide a multi-head collaborative FDM printing control framework and a printing system which can effectively improve the printing efficiency.

The purpose of the invention can be realized by the following technical scheme:

a multi-head cooperation FDM printing control framework is used for carrying out coordination control on an array type execution mechanism of an FDM printer, wherein the array type execution mechanism comprises a plurality of extrusion modules, the control framework comprises a main control microprocessor and a plurality of independent execution MCUs (microprogrammed control units) connected with the main control microprocessor, each execution MCU is connected with a plurality of extrusion modules, and the main control microprocessor stores a corresponding relation table of each execution MCU and each extrusion module;

the master control microprocessor includes a master control program, and the operations performed when the master control program is called include:

reading an FDM printing task instruction input from the outside;

based on the corresponding relation table, performing task planning and division on the FDM printing task instruction, and sending the divided subtask instruction to a corresponding execution MCU;

and the execution MCUs cooperatively complete the whole printing task based on the subtask instruction.

Further, the main control microprocessor comprises an MCU or an FPGA.

And further, the subtask instruction is converted into an internal read code suitable for decoding by the chip and then is sent to the corresponding execution MCU.

Further, the read-in code includes ASCII code or hexadecimal code.

Further, the execution MCU includes an execution program, and the operations executed when the execution program is called include:

and receiving the subtask instruction, and realizing motion control, extrusion control and auxiliary control on the extrusion module.

Further, the auxiliary control includes a heating control and a position calibration control.

Further, the motion control is 3-axis or more motion control.

Further, the execution MCU adopts a stm32 chip.

Furthermore, the control framework also comprises an embedded screen module for realizing the man-machine interaction between the state information and the printing process.

The invention also provides a printing system which comprises the multi-head collaborative FDM printing control framework.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following beneficial effects:

1. the invention uses array multiple heads to work cooperatively, thereby not only greatly improving the efficiency, but also achieving the cost far lower than that of an industrial large printer and achieving a granular material FDM printer.

2. The invention can cooperatively control each extrusion module to work simultaneously to finish the same printing task, and has relatively independent control and high reliability.

3. The invention also supports corresponding auxiliary control to ensure the normal operation of the printer.

4. The main control microprocessor is compatible with the conventional FDM slicing software, does not need to additionally develop slicing software with higher difficulty, and is very easy to popularize in the market.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The invention is described in detail below with reference to the figures and specific embodiments. The present embodiment is implemented on the premise of the technical solution of the present invention, and a detailed implementation manner and a specific operation process are given, but the scope of the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments.

Referring to fig. 1, the present embodiment provides a multi-head collaborative FDM printing control framework, which is used for performing coordinated control on an array type execution mechanism of an FDM printer, where the array type execution mechanism includes a plurality of extrusion modules, the control framework includes a main control microprocessor and a plurality of independent execution MCUs connected with the main control microprocessor, each execution MCU is connected with a plurality of extrusion modules, and the main control microprocessor stores a corresponding relationship table between each execution MCU and each extrusion module. The control framework can control the multi-head array type actuating mechanism to simultaneously work and move on a printing bottom plate to complete a printing task.

In the control framework, a main control microprocessor is a core and comprises a main control program, and two main functions are mainly realized: (1) reading and reprocessing FDM general planning codes (such as gcode) to realize task division of a plurality of extrusion modules controlled by the execution MCU; (2) the MCU is used for controlling the extrusion module to realize cooperative work. Specifically, the operations performed when the main control program is called include:

reading an FDM printing task instruction input from the outside to obtain an FDM general code;

and each executing MCU cooperatively completes the whole printing task based on the subtask instruction.

That is, the master microprocessor reads and reprocesses the FDM common code, there are mainly 3 responsibilities: (1) performing partition re-planning according to the general planning codes, (2) translating into internal reading codes which are more suitable for decoding of a chip; (3) and subpackaging the internal reading codes and sending the internal reading codes to each executor. It can be seen from the 3 responsibilities that the system framework is compatible with the common and conventional FDM slice software at present, does not need to additionally develop slice software with higher difficulty, and is very easy to popularize in the market.

The main control microprocessor can adopt MCU or FPGA as required. In order to enable the execution MCU to better decode the instruction, the subtask instruction is converted into an internal read code suitable for chip decoding and then is sent to the corresponding execution MCU. 5. The internal reading code can be the current ASCII code or a hexadecimal code more suitable for the control of the singlechip.

The MCU is independent to each other, is used for controlling single extrusion module to realize movement, extrusion, heating and other auxiliary functions, and comprises an executive program, and the executive program executes operations when being called, including: and receiving a subtask instruction, and realizing motion control, extrusion control and auxiliary control on the extrusion module. The auxiliary control comprises heating control and position calibration control to ensure the normal operation of the printer, and the motion control is more than 3-axis motion control to adapt to more complex FDM multidimensional printing.

Referring to fig. 1, the control architecture includes multiple execution MCUs that can use stm32 chips to support more than 3 extrusion mechanism motions to accommodate complex multi-color support printing.

In other embodiments, the control framework further comprises an embedded screen module for enabling human-machine interaction of the status information with the printing process. The embedded screen module can comprise components such as a screen, a drive IC and the like, a communication bus interface and the like, can realize functions such as graphic display, touch interaction and the like, and realizes man-machine interaction of system state information and a printing process.

There is also provided in another embodiment a printing system comprising a multi-head cooperative FDM print control framework as described above.

The foregoing detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented. It should be understood that numerous modifications and variations could be devised by those skilled in the art in light of the present teachings without departing from the inventive concepts. Therefore, the technical solutions available to those skilled in the art through logic analysis, reasoning and limited experiments based on the prior art according to the concept of the present invention should be within the scope of protection defined by the claims.

Claims

1. A multi-head cooperative FDM printing control framework, characterized in that it is used to coordinately control an array-type actuator of an FDM printer, the array-type actuator includes a plurality of extrusion modules, and the control framework includes a main A control microprocessor and a plurality of independent execution MCUs connected to the main control microprocessor, each of the execution MCUs is connected to several extrusion modules, and the main control microprocessor stores the execution MCUs and the extrusion modules. The corresponding relationship table;

The main control microprocessor includes a main control program, and the operations performed when the main control program is called include:

Read the externally input FDM print task command;

Based on the correspondence table, task planning and division are performed on the FDM printing task instructions, and the divided subtask instructions are sent to the corresponding execution MCU;

Each of the execution MCUs cooperates to complete the entire printing task based on the subtask instructions.

2 . The multi-head cooperative FDM printing control framework according to claim 1 , wherein the main control microprocessor comprises an MCU or an FPGA. 3 .

3 . The multi-head cooperative FDM printing control framework according to claim 1 , wherein the subtask instruction is converted into an internal reading code suitable for chip decoding and then sent to the corresponding execution MCU. 4 .

4. The multi-head cooperative FDM printing control framework according to claim 3, wherein the internal reading code comprises ASCII code or hexadecimal code.

5. The multi-head cooperative FDM printing control framework according to claim 1, wherein the execution MCU comprises an execution program, and the operation performed when the execution program is called comprises:

After receiving the sub-task instruction, the extrusion module can be controlled for motion, extrusion and auxiliary control.

6 . The multi-head cooperative FDM printing control framework according to claim 5 , wherein the auxiliary control includes heating control and position calibration control. 7 .

7 . The multi-head cooperative FDM printing control framework according to claim 5 , wherein the motion control is motion control of more than 3 axes. 8 .

8 . The multi-head cooperative FDM printing control framework according to claim 1 , wherein the execution MCU adopts a stm32 chip. 9 .

9 . The multi-head cooperative FDM printing control framework according to claim 1 , wherein the control framework further comprises an embedded screen module for realizing man-machine interaction between the status information and the printing process. 10 .

10. A printing system, characterized by comprising the multi-head cooperative FDM printing control framework according to any one of claims 1-9.