JPH0252725A - Optical shaping method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate a supporting section, if necessary, and separate a solid and a base surface easily without damaging the solid by forming the supporting section based on light irradiation in a manner to provide the supporting section of the shape removable after forming the solid between the base surface and the solid of desired shape and also forming the solid. CONSTITUTION:A photosetting fluidized substance A is accommodated in a container, and a base plate 2 is sunk in the fluidized substance A by the depth in which a continuous set section from the upper surface of fluidized substance A to the upper surface of base plate 2 is formed by light irradiating from upward, and its position is fixed. After that, the light of energy level required for setting the substance is issued from a light source, and while light is converged in the dot shape by a light convergence device 4, a set section corresponding with a supporting section 3 is provided between the base plate 2 and a spherical solid. Further, settling of said base plate 2 and formation of heat section by light irradiation are repeated to form a spherical solid 5 on the supporting section 3. Then, the solid 5 is separated from the base plate 2 by breaking the supporting section 3 after the formation of the solid 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical shaping method using light and a photocurable fluid material to form a solid body of a desired shape.

Conventional technology and its problems Traditionally, models corresponding to the product shape required during mold production, or models for tracing control in cutting or die-sinking electrical discharge machining electrodes, have been produced by hand processing or using an NC milling machine. This was done by NC cutting using, etc. However, when using manual machining, there is a problem in that it requires a lot of time and skill, and when using NC machining, it is necessary to create a complicated machining program that takes into account replacement to change the shape of the cutting edge of the blade, wear, etc. In addition, there is a problem in that additional finishing machining may be required to remove steps formed on the machined surface.

In order to deal with such problems, various methods have been proposed for selectively curing photocurable resins to obtain solids with desired shapes.

For example, as one method for forming a solid using the photocurable resin, a method has been proposed in which the photocurable resin is repeatedly selectively irradiated with light based on masking to obtain a desired three-dimensional shape. This involves first irradiating a very shallow photocurable resin with light from above or below, then placing a masking film in front of the photocurable resin with a light-transmitting part corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of the three-dimensional object to be obtained. Then, by this irradiation, a thin layer cured part with the desired cross-sectional shape is obtained, and for the continuous cross-sectional shape, the depth of the photocurable resin is gradually increased, the masking film is sequentially replaced, and the light irradiation is repeated to obtain the desired shape. This is a method to obtain a solid.

Another method is to irradiate concentrated light energy according to the cross-sectional shape of a solid of a desired shape to a layer of a photocurable fluid material having a thickness that allows a continuous hardened portion to be formed, and then to form a predetermined hardened portion. A new layer of photocurable fluid material is added to the surface of the cured part, and the cross-sectional shape that continues to the cured part is irradiated with concentrated light energy again to form a new cured part.This operation is repeated to form a desired three-dimensional shape. A method to obtain this is proposed.

In the various methods described above, the solid may be firmly attached to the base surface that holds the solid in the desired shape, for example, the bottom wall of a container or the base plate that supports the solid, and this causes the base surface to Separation from the solids took time and sometimes resulted in damage to the solids.

Furthermore, in the process of producing a solid object shaped like a sphere that contacts the base surface with an extremely small area, the hardened portion may peel off from the base surface or be inclined relative to the base surface, and the solid object may continue to be shaped. The problem was that I couldn't get it.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, to be able to reliably form a solid in a desired shape, and to easily separate the solid from the base surface after forming the solid without damaging the solid. The object of the present invention is to provide an optical modeling method that can be used for various purposes.

Means for Solving the Problems The above object of the present invention is to house a photocurable fluid material that hardens with light in a container, and while irradiating the fluid material with light, irradiating the irradiated area with respect to the container. When forming a solid of a desired shape on a base surface by relative movement in the horizontal and vertical directions according to the shape of the object to be modeled, a solid of a shape that can be removed after the solid is formed is placed between the base surface and the solid of the desired shape. An optical modeling method, characterized in that the solid state is formed by forming the support part based on the light irradiation so that the support part is present, and the support part is removed as necessary after the formation; A photocurable fluid material that is hardened by light is housed in a container, and while irradiating light into the fluid material, the irradiation area is moved relative to the container in horizontal and vertical directions according to the shape of the object to be modeled. When forming a solid having a desired shape on a base surface, a support member having a shape that can be removed after the solid is formed is removably disposed on the base surface, and the solid is formed so as to be supported by the support member. This is achieved by an optical modeling method characterized in that the support member is removed from the solid body as necessary after the formation.

The supporting portions having a shape that can be removed after the solid is formed have a small contact area with the desired-shaped solid, and may be provided at one or more locations so as to be able to support the solid.

As the photocurable fluid substance, various substances that are cured by light irradiation can be used, such as modified polyurethane methacrylate, oligoester acrylate, urethane acrylate, epoxy acrylate, photosensitive polyimide, and amino alkyd.

Pigment, cerami sox powder,
It is also possible to use a material mixed with a modifying material such as metal powder.

As the light, various types of light such as visible light and ultraviolet light can be used depending on the photocurable material used.

Although the light may be ordinary light, using laser light has the advantages of increasing the energy level, shortening the modeling time, and improving the modeling accuracy by utilizing good light focusing. can.

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a step-by-step process of manufacturing a solid body of a desired shape using an apparatus for carrying out an optical modeling method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The device uses a photocurable flow material (A
) and a base plate (2) supported by the lower end of a vertically extending support rod (1).
and a light convergent (
4), and the light irradiation position is moved relative to the fluid material (A). Light source and light concentrator (
4) is fixed outside the container and moves mainly in the horizontal direction with respect to the container. The light converging device (4) can be replaced with the above-mentioned convex lens, for example, a concave mirror. Further, the upper end of the support rod (1) that supports the base plate (2) is also fixed outside the container and moves in a direction perpendicular to the container.

Movement control of the light source and light concentrator (4), or support rod (
The movement control in 1) can be performed as appropriate, such as automatic control such as NC or manual control.

In order to model a solid object having a shape similar to a sphere using this device, first, the photocurable fluid material (A) is placed in a container, and the base plate (2) is irradiated with light from above. It is immersed in the fluid material (A) and positioned to a depth that provides a continuous hardened portion extending from the top surface of the fluid material (A) to the top surface of the base plate (2). After that, light with an energy level necessary for curing the fluid substance is emitted from a light source, and the light is focused into a point by a light concentrator (4) between the base plate (2) and the above-mentioned spherical solid. Obtain a hardened part corresponding to the support part (3) that supports the solid (
(See Figure 1(a)).

After the hardened portion is obtained, the depth from the upper surface of the fluid material (A) to the upper surface of the hardened portion is the depth at which a continuous hardened portion extending between these surfaces is obtained by light irradiation, that is, forms the hardened portion. By lowering the base plate (2) to the same depth as the hardened portion, and selectively irradiating concentrated light through the same light converging device (4) as described above, a new continuous hardening layer is formed on the hardened portion. Get the portion. The support portion (3) obtained by repeating this operation is constituted by a plurality of vertically extending columns having a narrow diameter.

Further, the sedimentation of the base plate (2) and the formation of a hardened portion by light irradiation are repeated (see FIG. 1(b)), and a spherical solid (5) is formed on the support portion (3) (
(See Figure 1(C)). In this way, since the solid is formed so that the support part (3) is interposed between the solid (5) and the base plate (2), the hardened part with the rounded bottom surface may peel off from the base plate (2) or The spherical solid (5
) can be formed smoothly and reliably.

After the solid (5) is formed, the solid (5) is separated from the base plate (2) by breaking the support part (3) (the first
(See figure (d)). Since the support part (3) is constituted by the thin columnar body as described above, the contact area with the base plate (2) is small and the support part (3) is easily attached to the base plate (2).
Can be broken at the top. Further, the support portion (3) may be peeled off from the contact surface with the base plate (2). In any case, the solid (5) can be separated from the base plate (2) without any effort, and the solid (5) is not damaged. The support part (3) separated from the base plate (2) is then removed from the solid body (5) by suitable means, as shown in FIG. 1(e). This makes it possible to obtain the desired spherical solid (5) without any damage or the like.

FIG. 2 shows step-by-step an optical modeling method according to another embodiment of the invention using the apparatus described above. In this optical modeling method, a spherical solid (5') as described above is attached to a base plate (2).
In forming the base plate (2), the support member (13) is removably disposed on the base plate (2) as shown in FIG. 2(a).

The support member (13) includes a flat base (14) and a base (
14) A plurality of thin columns (15) erected on top of the spherical solid (5')
5) is formed by the same operation as described above so as to include the tip portion. The support member (13) includes a base plate (
2), since it is arranged in a removable manner, as shown in Fig. 2 (
As shown in b), the support member (13) can be easily removed from the base plate (2). Solid (5'
) is separated from the base plate (2), the solid (
The tip of the column (15) included in the solid body (5')
) may be left in place, or the exposed support member (13) may be removed.

The support portion and support member are not limited to the above shapes, and may be, for example, a single column that supports the center of the lower surface of a solid having a desired shape.

As mentioned above, the method of the present invention is characterized in that modeling is performed by interposing a support part or a support member between the base surface and the desired shape solid body, and as long as it has this feature, It is applied to various modeling methods based on light irradiation. For example, a method of forming a solid by light irradiation while raising the upper surface of a photocurable fluid material in a container, and a method of immersing a box body having a transparent plate in a photocurable fluid material inside a container and raising the transparent plate while raising the upper surface of the photocurable fluid material. A method of forming a solid based on light irradiation through the transparent plate, using a part of the side wall or bottom wall of the container as a transparent plate, and irradiating light through the transparent plate while keeping the base surface supporting the cured portion away from the transparent plate. It can be applied to a method of forming a solid on a base surface based on the above method. In addition, light irradiation in these methods includes, for example, light irradiation using a light guide, light irradiation in which light emitted from multiple light sources intersect at one point, and light irradiation in which the cross section perpendicular to the optical axis has an annular light intensity distribution. etc. can be adopted.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above, according to the method of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. That is, the solid is formed by forming the supporting part based on light irradiation so that the supporting part with a shape that can be removed after the solid is formed is interposed between the base surface and the solid of the desired shape, and the solid is formed as necessary. Since the supporting portion is removed, the solid can be reliably formed in the desired shape, and the solid can be easily separated from the base surface after the solid has been formed, without damaging the solid. Further, a support member having a shape that can be removed after solid formation is removably disposed on the base surface, solid formation is performed so as to be supported by the support member, and after the formation, the support member is removed from the solid as necessary. If removed, in addition to the above-mentioned effects, the solid and the substrate surface can be separated very easily without any effort.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIGS. 1(a) to (e) are explanatory diagrams showing step-by-step an optical modeling method according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2(a) to (C)
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing step-by-step an optical modeling method according to another embodiment of the present invention. (1)...Support rod (2)...Base plate (base surface) (3)
...Supporting part (4) ... Light converging device (5), (5') ... Desired shape solid (13
)...Supporting member (A)...Photocurable fluid material (and above)

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] [1] A photocurable fluid material that is hardened by light is placed in a container, and while irradiating light into the fluid material, the irradiated area is shaped in horizontal and vertical directions with respect to the container. When forming a solid of a desired shape on a base surface by relative movement according to the shape of the object, a support part of a shape that can be removed after the solid is formed is interposed between the base surface and the solid of the desired shape. The optical modeling method is characterized in that the support part is formed based on the light irradiation to perform the solid formation, and after the formation, the support part is removed as necessary. [2] A photocurable fluid material that is hardened by light is placed in a container, and while irradiating light into the fluid material, the irradiation area is placed in horizontal and vertical directions relative to the container according to the shape of the object to be modeled. When forming a solid in a desired shape on a base surface by relative movement, a support member having a shape that can be removed after the solid is formed is removably disposed on the base surface, and the support member is supported by the support member. An optical modeling method characterized in that the solid body is formed, and after the solid body formation, the support member is removed from the solid body as necessary.