Powder spreading device and powder spreading method for selective laser melting (SLM) equipment

Abstract

The invention discloses a powder spreading device and a powder spreading method for selective laser melting (SLM) equipment. The device comprises a powder spreading main body, an auxiliary guide rail linear motor and an auxiliary powder spreading guide motor, wherein the auxiliary guide rail linear motor is used for driving the powder spreading main body to slide on an auxiliary powder spreading guide rail; the inside of the powder spreading main body is partitioned into three segments, namely, a cylindrical segment, a circular arc segment and a conical segment from top to bottom respectively; the cylindrical segment is a powder carrying area; a powder feeding hole is formed between the cylindrical segment and the circular arc segment; the circular arc segment is provided with a powder supply roller; a plurality of dovetail grooves are uniformly formed on the powder supply roller; the excircle of the powder supply roller is tangential to a circular arc on the upper part of the circular arc segment; the powder supply roller is driven to rotate by a servo driving motor; the conical segment is provided with a powder scraping device; the bottom of the conical segment is provided with a powder outlet; the upper end of the powder scraping device is tangential to the excircle of the powder supply roller, and the lower end of the powder scraping device extends out of the powder outlet; gaps are reserved between the lower end of the powder scraping device and the two ends of the powder outlet; the powder scraping device comprises a flexible powder scraping brush. By adopting the powder spreading device and the powder spreading method, quantitative powder supply can be realized, waste of powder is reduced, bidirectional powder spreading can be performed, the SLM molding auxiliary process time is shortened, and the SLM molding efficiency is increased.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to the research field of additive manufacturing, in particular to a powder spreading device and a powder spreading method for selective laser melting SLM equipment. Background technique [0002] Laser selective melting SLM integrates laser, precision transmission, new materials, CAD / CAM and other technologies. Through the fine laser focusing spot of 30-80 microns, the selected area on the new powder layer is overlapped and scanned line by line, and the surface contour is formed. Layer-to-layer stacking and forming, so as to directly obtain metal functional parts with almost any shape and complete metallurgical bonding, and the density can reach nearly 100%. SLM simplifies complex three-dimensional geometry into two-dimensional plane manufacturing, and the manufacturing cost does not depend on the complexity of the part, but on the volume and molding direction of the part. [0003] As an important way to directly manufacture metal...

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Problems solved by technology

[0004] However, the powder coating in the existing laser selective melting SLM equipment is one-way powder coating, which needs to return to the starting position of the powder coating, which takes a long time. At the same time, the amount of powder supplied is small during the powder coating process, which will lead to The front and back are not uniform, and the amount of powder supplied is large, which will require an increase in the demand for pre-molded materials, and the scraping powder is made of silica gel, which is easy to be lost and will affect the subsequent powder spreading. Therefore, it is necessary to seek a quantitative powder feeding and two-way powder spreading , The powder spreading device with flexible powder scraping has important research value

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