Stereolithography color 3D printing method

• US 10,449,715 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2018
• Issued: 10/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kinpo Electronics Incorporated (Cal-Comp Electronics Public Company Limited), XYZprinting, Inc.
• Original Assignee: XYZprinting, Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Peng-Yang
• Primary Examiner(s): Do, An H
• Application Number:
  US16/014,898
• Publication Number:
  US 20190210275A1
• Time in Patent Office: 488 Days
• Field of Search: 347 14, 347 15, 347101, 347107
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/135 the energy source being concentrated, e.g. scanning lasers or focused light sources
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/20 Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/393 for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 10/00 Processes of additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/01 Ink jet
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/10 Geometric effects

Abstract

A stereolithography color 3D printing method applied to a stereolithography color 3D printer (1) having a light module (11), a coloring module (12) and a curing platform (17) is provided. The method is to lower the curing platform (17) a default height (h), operate the light module (11) to irradiate stereolithography materials (180) on the curing platform (17) for curing the stereolithography materials (180) and manufacturing one layer of slice physical model (182, 30, 31) according to one layer of object print data, operate the coloring module (12) to color the slice physical model (182, 30, 31), and perform above-mentioned operations repeatedly until a color 3D physical model has been manufactured. Therefore, better printing performance can be achieved and colored 3D physical model with high definition can be manufactured by combining the stereolithography technology with the auto-coloring technology.

Claims

1. A stereolithography color 3D printing method applied to a stereolithography color 3D printer (1), the stereolithography color 3D printer (1) comprising a control module (10), a light module (11), a coloring module (12), a drive module (16), a curing platform (17), and a material tank (18), the light module (11) being arranged at least one light spot and configured to irradiate a plurality of different positions of the curing platform (17) by the at least one light spot, the coloring module (12) being arranged at least one inkjet nozzle and configured to color the different positions of the curing platform (17) by the at least one inkjet nozzle, the material tank (18) being used to store stereolithography materials (180), the method comprising following steps of:

a) loading color 3D object data;

b) generating multiple layers of object print data according to geometric information of the color 3D object data, wherein each layer of the object print data is a 2D image;

c) generating multiple layers of color print data according to color information of the color 3D object data, wherein each layer of the color print data is a 2D color image;

d) the control module (10) controlling the drive module (16) to lift the curing platform (17) to make the curing platform (17) be under liquid surface of the stereolithography materials (180) in the material tank (18) and make a vertical distance between the liquid surface and the curing platform (17) or one layer of slice physical model (182, 30, 31) last printed be a default height (h);

e) the drive module (16) controlling the light module (11) to adjust luminous flux of each light spot of the light module (11) for irradiating the stereolithography materials (180) at corresponding positions upon the curing platform (17) for curing the stereolithography materials (180) into one layer of the slice physical model (182, 30, 31) according to pixel value of each pixel of one layer of the object print data;

f) the drive module (16) controlling the coloring module (12) to color at corresponding positions of the slice physical model (182, 30, 31) being printed according to the pixel value of each pixel of the same layer of the color print data; and

g) performing the step d) to the step f) repeatedly for stacking all of the slice physical models (30′

, 31′

) as a color 3D physical model.

2. The stereolithography color 3D printing method according to claim 1, wherein the step c) comprises following steps of:

c1) generating the multiple layers of the color print data according to the color information; and

c2) modifying at least one layer of the color print data for reducing area of a coloring region (310) of the color print data.

3. The stereolithography color 3D printing method according to claim 2, wherein the step c2) is configured to reduce the area of the coloring region (310) of the layer of the color print data if the layer of the color print data is a middle layer.

4. A stereolithography color 3D printing method applied to a stereolithography color 3D printer (1), the stereolithography color 3D printer (1) comprising a control module (10), a light module (11), a coloring module (12), a driving module (16), a curing platform (17), and a material tank (18), the light module (11) being arranged at least one light spot and configured to irradiate a plurality of different positions of the curing platform (17) by the at least one light spot, the coloring module (12) being arranged at least one inkjet nozzle and configured to color the different positions of the curing platform (17) by the at least one inkjet nozzle, the material tank (18) being used to store stereolithography materials (180), the method comprising following steps of:

a) loading color 3D object data;

b) generating multiple layers of object print data according to geometric information of the color 3D object data, wherein each layer of the object print data is a 2D image;

c) generating multiple layers of color print data according to color information of the color 3D object data, wherein each layer of the color print data is a 2D color image;

d) controlling the curing platform (17) to lower a default height (h);

e) the drive module (16) controlling the coloring module (12) to color at corresponding positions of stereolithography materials (180) on the curing platform (17) according to pixel value of each pixel of one layer of the color print data;

f) the drive module (16) controlling the light module (11) to adjust luminous flux of each light spot of the light module (11) for irradiating the stereolithography materials (180) at the corresponding positions upon the curing platform (17) for curing the colored stereolithography materials (180, 40, 41) into one layer of the slice physical model (40′

,41′

) according to the pixel value of each pixel of one layer of the object print data; and

g) performing the step d) to the step f) repeatedly for stacking all of the slice physical models (40′

, 41′

) as a color 3D physical model.

5. The stereolithography color 3D printing method according to claim 4, wherein the step c) comprises following steps of:

c1) generating the multiple layers of the color print data according to the color information; and

c2) modifying at least one layer of the color print data for reducing area of a coloring region (140) of the color print data.

6. The stereolithography color 3D printing method according to claim 5, wherein the step c2) is configured to reduce the area of the coloring region (410) of the layer of the color print data if the layer of the color print data is a middle layer.

7. The stereolithography color 3D printing method according to claim 4, wherein the step e) is configured to control the coloring module (12) to jetting the stereolithography materials (181, 40, 41) with different colors to the curing platform (17) for coloring.