Device for the generative manufacturing of three-dimensional components

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for producing products having individual geometries, comprising a substrate carrier device, a material application device for applying material, preferably above the substrate carrier device, which material application device can be moved relative to the substrate carrier device, and a control device which is coupled to the material application device for signaling. According to the invention, the material application device is coupled to an input interface for signaling and for selection of a first or a second application mode, the control device and the application device being designed such as to produce, in the first application mode, a three-dimensional product on the surface of a substrate plate by way of an additive production method, said substrate plate being connected to the substrate carrier device. According to the additive production method, a curable material is applied in consecutive layers, one or more predetermined regions are selectively cured after or during each application of a layer, the predetermined regions being bonded to one or more regions of the underlying layer. The predetermined region(s) is / are predetermined by a cross-section geometry of the product in the respective layer and is / are stored in the control device, and the curable material is applied in a plurality of consecutive layers to produce the three-dimensional product. The control device and the application device are further designed such that in the second mode of application one or more colors are applied to predetermined regions of a print substrate material connected to the substrate carrier device to produce a monochrome or polychrome print.

Description

[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13 / 582,399, filed Jan. 14, 2013, which is the U.S. National Stage of PCT / EP2011 / 065889, filed Sep. 13, 2011, the content of which is fully incorporated by reference.[0002]This application claims priority of German Utility Model DE 20 2011 003 443U, the content of which is fully incorporated by reference. Further, the content of EP 2289462 A1 and the content of EP 2289652A1 is fully incorporated by reference.[0003]The invention concerns a device for the manufacturing of products with individual geometry, comprising a substrate carrier device, a material application device being movable relative to the substrate carrier device, preferably above the substrate carrier device, and a control unit being coupled to the material application device.[0004]This application claims priority of German Utility Model DE 20 2011 003 443U, the content of which is fully incorporated by reference. Further, the content of EP 2289462 A1...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016]Another problem with the known production processes and devices is that the maximum dimensions of the products to be manufactured are limited. Above all, this is because the products are manufactured on a substrate carrier, so that, on the one hand, the dimensions of the substrate carrier and, on the other hand, the formation space above the substrate carrier may not be exceeded. We therefore require a device and a process designed to accommodate products having large dimension, especially products in which the extent in one or two spatial directions is much larger in relation to the other spatial direction(s) and efficiently manufacture these products by a generative process.

[0155]Furthermore, the process is characterized in that the material is applied to several substrate plate segments by the material application device in one operational cycle. This adaptation enables an efficiently functioning material application device and, at the same time, the individual manufacturing progress of the respective products manufactured on the several different substrate plate segments.

Problems solved by technology

A basic problem with the generative production processes is the long time between the creation of the production data and the manufacturing of the product.

While this design eliminates the downtime required to remove the product from the substrate carrier, this arrangement still has the disadvantage that the production process can be started only when the production data for all products to be manufactured on a substrate carrier, so that, as a result, the overall time for the manufacture of a product cannot be significantly reduced.

Nevertheless, with this manufacturing device as well, the manufacturing process takes at least as long as between the creation of the production data for all products on the substrate carrier and the manufacturing of the products, so that, in regard to the production of each individual or a number of products formed, a relatively long time is still required.

The device so characterized and the process described for the generative manufacturing of products with this device have the disadvantage that, for the purpose of simultaneously manufacturing with alternating curing and layer deposition in the respective processing chambers, a separate control unit for the deposition process is required in each of the processing chambers.

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