JP7565862B2 - 3D printer, its modeling method, and its modeled object - Google Patents

Description

Article 30, paragraph 2 of the Patent Act applies. Disclosed by: Ohinata Shin, Takamori Ryoma, Kinoshita Rina, Tanaka Hiroya. Places of publication: Ohinata Shin's website "COLOR FAB", video sharing site for creators "Vimeo", Toyama Design Competition 2020, Ohinata Shin's Twitter account, Hiroya Tanaka Laboratory website at Keio University, Hiroya Tanaka's YouTube channel. Dates of publication: September 6, 2020, November 21, 2020, December 3, 2020, December 29, 2020, February 1, 2021, March 28, 2021.

The present invention relates to improvements to 3D printers, and in particular to 3D printers that use multiple filaments of different colors to create objects, the creation method thereof, and the objects created by the same.

One example of background technology for coloring objects is the "3D printer with coloring process and surface coloring device used therefor" described in Patent Document 1 below. This is aimed at precisely coloring the surface of a three-dimensionally molded workpiece with any color while adopting a simple device configuration, and is equipped with a 3D printer section that ejects and layers filament from a nozzle head to form a three-dimensionally molded workpiece, and an inkjet color printer section that ejects multiple different colors of ink from a print head to perform color printing.

JP 2017-105063 A

Incidentally, instead of inkjet color printing as in the background art described above, there is a method of coloring using filaments of multiple different colors. For example, instead of using red, blue, and yellow filaments and printing in each color, blue and yellow filaments can be mixed and printed in green. With this method, it is possible to color a model without the need for an inkjet color printer unit. In this case, if the characteristics of a 3D printer are utilized, it may be possible to color in a way that is not possible with inkjet color printing methods.

The present invention focuses on the above points and aims to provide innovative coloring techniques that have never been seen before when coloring objects using multiple filaments of different colors.

The 3D printer of the present invention is a 3D printer that obtains a model with an uneven surface by extruding and stacking multiple filaments of different colors from a printer head based on 3D data of the model, and is characterized in that the printer head is equipped with a heater that heats the multiple filaments to a temperature at which they are extruded but at a temperature at which they do not mix, and is equipped with a drive control device that simultaneously extrudes the multiple filaments after heating by the heater in the stacking direction, thereby stacking them so that each filament is within an angle range corresponding to the amount of extrusion in a cross section perpendicular to the extrusion direction.
According to one of the main forms:
The 3D printer is provided with a table mechanism that moves the printer head on a three-dimensional coordinate system.
b. The printer head is provided with, in addition to the heater, an extruder that simultaneously feeds the multiple filaments, and a discharge nozzle that simultaneously discharges the multiple filaments fed thereby after heating them with the heater.
c) the drive control device controls the table mechanism so that the discharge nozzle is at a position specified by the 3D data, controls the extruder so that the filament feed speed is the speed specified by the 3D data, and controls the heater so that the heating temperature is the temperature specified by the 3D data, thereby stacking the multiple filaments so that the color of each filament is exposed from the surface.

The modeling method of the present invention is a modeling method for performing modeling by the 3D printer, comprising the steps of:
a, the table mechanism positions the ejection nozzle of the printer head at a position designated by the 3D data;
b) The extruder is configured so that the filament is fed at a speed specified by the 3D data;
c) heating the filament with the heater to a temperature specified by the 3D data;
d) The heated filaments are simultaneously discharged and laminated from the discharge nozzle,
The method is characterized by shaping the filaments so that, in a cross section perpendicular to the extrusion direction, each filament is within an angle range that corresponds to the extrusion amount.
According to one of the main aspects, the object has a surface formed with projections and recesses that change color when viewed from different directions .

The object of the present invention is an object formed using the 3D printer, and is characterized in that the filaments heated by the heater are simultaneously discharged in a stacking direction, so that the filaments are stacked in a cross section perpendicular to the discharge direction within an angle range corresponding to the discharge amount, and the object has a surface with unevenness that changes color when viewed from different directions. The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

According to the present invention, multiple filaments of different colors are ejected simultaneously, and the surface of the object is provided with irregularities in a direction different from the lamination direction of the filaments, making it possible to obtain a novel object whose color changes depending on the viewing direction.

1 is a diagram showing the appearance of an embodiment of a 3D printer of the present invention. 1A is a diagram showing an outline of the configuration of a printer head in the embodiment, while FIGS. 1B and 1C are diagrams showing examples of ejection from ejection nozzles. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a drive control device in the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a G-code in the embodiment. 1A is a diagram showing an example of a molded object according to the embodiment, while FIG. 1B and FIG. 1C show the state of FIG. 1A viewed from different directions. Fig. 5 shows the principle of color change in the model. (A) is a view from the arrow F5a in Fig. 4, and (B) is an enlarged view of the dotted line part. (C) is a diagram showing the color scheme on a flat surface. (D) is a diagram showing an example of a shape in which a long-period undulating shape and a short-period wavy shape are superimposed. 1A is a diagram showing an example of another shaped object according to the present invention, while (B) and (C) show (A) viewed from different directions.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to examples.

First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to Figs. 1 to 6. Figs. 1 to 3 show the overall configuration of the 3D printer of this embodiment, which is mainly composed of a table mechanism 10 shown in Fig. 1, a printer head 100 shown in Fig. 2(A), and a drive control device 200 shown in Fig. 3. Of these, the table mechanism 10 is constructed on a rectangular base frame body 20. The base frame 20 is composed of Y-direction base frames 22, 24 and X-direction base frames 26, 28. A central frame 30 is provided between the base frames 22, 24, and both ends are connected to the base frames 26, 28, respectively.

On the other hand, a roughly U-shaped vertical frame body 50 is attached to the base frames 22, 24. The vertical frame body 50 is composed of vertical frames 52, 54 standing upright from the base frames 22, 24, and a vertical frame 56 that spans the ends of these vertical frames 52, 54. The vertical frames 52, 54 are provided with a head frame 60 to which the printer head 100 is attached. The vertical frame body 50 is fixed to the base frame body 20 described above.

Next, a table (or bed) 70 is provided on the central frame 30 of the base frame body 20, and a model is created on this table 70. The printer head 100 can slide in the X direction along the head frame 60 by an X drive mechanism 72. The table 70 can slide in the Y direction along the central frame 30 by a Y drive mechanism 74. The head frame 60 of the vertical frame body 50 can slide in the Z direction along the vertical frames 52 and 54 by a Z drive mechanism 76. This allows the nozzle of the printer head 100 to slide in three directions, X, Y, and Z. The drive mechanisms 72, 74, and 76 are, for example, composed of a stepping motor and a belt. One suitable example of such a 3D printer is the "CR-10S5 3D printer" manufactured by CREALITY3D.

Next, the printer head 100 will be described with reference to FIG. 2(A). In the printer head 100 of this embodiment, four different colored filaments FA to FD are sent to the heater 120 by the extruder 110, and the filaments heated by the heater 120 are discharged from the nozzle 130. For example, the filament FA is black, the filament FB is red, the filament FC is blue, and the filament FD is yellow. The discharge nozzle 130 is equipped with the four material supply ports (insertion ports), and the filaments FA to FD supplied to these are melted and discharged. One suitable example of such a printer head 100 is, for example, "THE QUADFUSION PRINT HEAD" manufactured by M3D.

Next, drive control signals are supplied from the drive control device (motherboard) 200 to the X-Z drive mechanisms 72, 74, 76 of the base frame body 20 and the vertical frame body 50, as well as the extruder 110 and heater 120 of the printer head 100. Drive control is performed based on the so-called G-code. The G-code is created by software such as "Grasshopper", and is decoded by the decoder 210 of the drive control device 200. Control signals are then sent from the driver 220 to each section based on the results of this decoding. An example of the G-code is shown in Figure 4.

Next, the overall operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to Figures 5 and 6. The 3D data of the object to be created is converted into a G code by the slicer software and input to the drive control device 200. The G code is decoded by the decoder 210, and control signals for performing the decoded operations are output from the driver 220 to each section. That is, control signals are output to the X to Z drive mechanisms 72, 74, and 76 so that the nozzle of the printer head 100 is at the position specified by the G code. In addition, in the printer head 100, a control signal is output to the extruder 110 so that the feed speed of the filaments FA to FD is the speed specified by the G code, and a control signal is output to the heater 120 so that the temperature of the filaments FA to FD is the temperature specified by the G code.

In this case, in this embodiment, the heater 120 sets the temperature at which the filaments FA to FD discharged from the nozzles of the printer head 100 can be evenly extruded to form (print), and at which they do not mix. In the example of the G code shown in FIG. 4, the code "M109 S210.0" indicated by the arrow GA indicates that the filament temperature at the discharge nozzle 130 of the printer head 100 is set to 210°C. Also, the code "M567 P0 E0:0.334:0.333:0.333" indicated by the arrow GB indicates that the setting is such that the filament is evenly extruded from the discharge nozzles 1 to 3 out of the material discharge nozzles 0, 1, 2, and 3 of the discharge nozzle 130.

For example, if filaments FA to FD are discharged from material outlets 0, 1, 2, and 3 of discharge nozzle 130, respectively, under the above-mentioned G-code conditions, filaments FB to FD will be output evenly from discharge nozzle 130 as shown in FIG. 2(B). That is, when viewed in a cross section perpendicular to the discharge direction, filaments FB to FD will be discharged within an angle range of 120 degrees. FIG. 2(C) shows a case where filaments FA to FD are discharged evenly. Note that, depending on the G-code settings, they are not necessarily output evenly, and for example, filament FB will be discharged more than FC and FD. For example, filament FB may be discharged at 180 degrees, and FC and FD at 90 degrees.

While the filaments FA-FD are being ejected as described above, the drive control device 200 drives the X-Z drive mechanisms 72, 74, 76 of the table mechanism 10 so that the nozzle 130 is positioned as specified by the G-code. As a result, the filaments FA-FD are stacked on the table 70, forming a model. An example of the model MA is shown in Figure 5, and the views from the arrows F5b and F5c in Figure 5 (A) are shown in Figure 5 (B) and (C), respectively.

Figure 6(A) shows the state as viewed from the direction indicated by the arrow F5a in Figure 5(A), i.e., the stacking direction of the model MA, and Figure 6(B) is an enlarged view of the dotted line portion in Figure 6(A). As shown in the figure, in the case of four colors, filaments FA to FD are stacked from the discharge nozzle 130 of the printer head 100 in the color arrangement shown in Figure 2(C). Therefore, when viewed from the arrow F6a shown in Figure 6(B), the color of the filament FA is exposed from the surface, and when viewed from the arrow F6b, the color of the filament FB is exposed from the surface. In contrast, for example, when a flat surface without irregularities is modeled as shown in Figure 6(C), only the color of the filament FA is visible when viewed from either the direction of the arrows F6s and F6t, resulting in a monochromatic model.

Furthermore, in the object MA shown in Figure 5, the waves (protrusions) on its surface are formed in a large undulating manner. This is shown in Figure 6 (D), where the undulating shape (wavy unevenness) SL shown by dotted lines and the wave shape (protrusion-like or pleated unevenness) SH are superimposed. In other words, the shape is a superposition of a long-period undulating shape SL and a short-period wave shape SH. For this reason, the above-mentioned color change depending on the viewing direction occurs due to each of the undulating shape SL and the wave shape SH, and they are also superimposed. This causes the color to change extremely dynamically depending on the viewing angle, resulting in a shape with a diverse range of color expressions.

In this way, according to this embodiment, multiple filaments of different colors are simultaneously ejected from the nozzles of the printer head 100, and the object is shaped so that the surface of the object has irregularities in a direction different from the stacking direction, making it possible to apply extremely innovative coloring in which the color changes depending on the viewing direction. In addition, by overlapping the irregularities with different periods, it is possible to obtain objects with even richer color expression.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to Figure 7. This figure shows a vase or pot-shaped object MB, and the views from the arrows F7b and F7c in Figure 7(A) are shown in Figures 7(B) and 7(C), respectively. The object of this embodiment has a larger diameter at the bottom than at the top, and has a wave pattern formed on its surface. The wave pattern is fine at the top and has large ridges at the bottom, with the color change being amplified from top to bottom. According to the present invention, objects with such complex color changes can be easily produced.

Other Examples The present invention is not limited to the above-described examples, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. For example, the following modifications are also included.
(1) In the above embodiment, filaments FA to FD of three or four colors are used, but two colors may be used, and there is no prohibition on using filaments of even more colors.
(2) In the above embodiment, the printer head 100 is moved on a three-dimensional coordinate system by the XZ drive mechanisms 72, 74, 76. However, any of various known table mechanisms may be used as the table mechanism.
(3) A suitable shaped object for the present invention is one having projections and recesses in a direction different from the lamination direction of the filaments, and when projections and recesses are present in a direction perpendicular to the lamination direction, the color change becomes more pronounced, and a shaped object with variation can be obtained. The projections and recesses may be rounded, such as wavy, or angular, or may be a combination of these.

(4) The color may be changed by rotating the printer head 100, the discharge nozzle 130, or the table 70. For example, a motor is provided between the printer head 100 and the head frame 60, and a G code that instructs the rotation is defined. In the example of FIG. 2(B), when the printer head 100 is rotated 120 degrees, the filaments FC and FD are positioned at the position of the filament FB. Therefore, the colors of the filaments FC and FD are exposed on the surface where the color of the filament FB is exposed. In the example of FIG. 2(C), the filaments are rotated 90 degrees or 180 degrees.
(5) In the above embodiment, multiple filaments are evenly extruded from multiple material supply ports of the extrusion nozzle 130. However, by changing the amount of extrusion of each filament from multiple independent material supply ports of the extrusion nozzle 130, it is also possible to extrude and model without uniform color, and this may be combined with the above embodiment.
(6) The shapes of the projections and the undulations of the surface shown in the above embodiment are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.
(7) Color includes colorless and transparent and colored and transparent.

According to the present invention, multiple filaments of different colors are ejected simultaneously, and the surface of the object is provided with irregularities in a direction different from the lamination direction of the filaments, making it possible to obtain novel objects whose colors change depending on the viewing direction, making the invention suitable for various types of object creation using 3D printers.

10: Table mechanism 20: Base frame body 22, 24: Base frame 26, 28: Base frame 30: Central frame 50: Vertical frame body 52, 54: Vertical frame 56: Vertical frame 60: Head frame 70: Table 72, 74, 76: Drive mechanism 100: Printer head 110: Extruder 120: Heater 130: Discharge nozzle 200: Drive control device 210: Decoder 220: Driver FA to FD: Filament MA: Modeled object MB: Modeled object SL: Undulating shape (undulating unevenness)
SH: Wave shape (projecting unevenness)

Claims (5)

A 3D printer that obtains a model having an uneven surface by extruding and stacking a plurality of filaments of different colors from a printer head based on 3D data of the model,
The printer head includes a heater that heats the filaments to a temperature at which the filaments are extruded and at which they do not mix together;
This 3D printer is characterized by having a drive control device that simultaneously extrudes multiple filaments heated by the heater in a stacking direction, stacking them so that each filament is within an angle range corresponding to the amount of extrusion in a cross section perpendicular to the extrusion direction. The 3D printer includes:
a table mechanism for moving the printer head on a three-dimensional coordinate system;
The printer head includes:
The method includes an extruder that simultaneously sends the plurality of filaments, and a discharge nozzle that simultaneously discharges the plurality of filaments sent by the extruder after heating them with the heater,
The drive control device includes:
controlling the table mechanism so that the ejection nozzle of the printer head is at a position designated by the 3D data;
Controlling the extruder so that the filament is fed at a speed specified by the 3D data;
Controlling the heater so that the heating temperature becomes a temperature specified by the 3D data;
2. The 3D printer according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of filaments are stacked so that the color of each filament is exposed from the surface. A modeling method for performing modeling using the 3D printer according to claim 2,
The table mechanism positions the ejection nozzle of the printer head at a position designated by the 3D data,
The extruder extrudes the filament at a speed specified by the 3D data;
heating the filament with the heater to a temperature specified by the 3D data;
The heated filaments are simultaneously discharged and laminated from the discharge nozzle,
A modeling method using a 3D printer, characterized in that each filament is shaped so that it is within an angle range corresponding to the amount of extrusion in a cross section perpendicular to the extrusion direction. The 3D printer modeling method according to claim 3, characterized in that the surface of the model is formed with irregularities that change color when viewed from different directions. A model produced by using the 3D printer according to claim 1 or 2,
After heating by the heater, multiple filaments are simultaneously extruded in a stacking direction, so that in a cross section perpendicular to the extrusion direction, each filament is stacked within an angle range corresponding to the amount of extrusion, resulting in a shaped object having a surface with irregularities that change color when viewed from different directions.

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