Synchronous cooling device, arc additive manufacturing device and method

Abstract

The present invention discloses a synchronous cooling device, an arc additive manufacturing device and a method, and relates to the field of additive manufacturing technology. The synchronous cooling device includes a cooling cabin, which has an operating end face and a cooling end face opposite to the operating end face. A plurality of accommodating holes are arranged on the cooling end face of the cooling cabin, and a plurality of cooling metal balls are filled in the cooling cabin, and some cooling metal balls are exposed from the accommodating holes and can rotate in the accommodating holes; a cooling pipeline for cooling the cooling metal balls is also arranged in the inner cavity of the cooling cabin; a first mounting port for mounting a welding gun is arranged on the operating end face, and a second mounting port corresponding to the first mounting port is arranged on the cooling end face. In the additive manufacturing process, the synchronous cooling device is cooled by synchronous movement with the welding gun, and the cooling metal balls are used to conduct flexible contact heat transfer with the additive components, which has higher heat transfer efficiency, is conducive to reducing internal defects of the formed components, and ensures mechanical properties.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of additive manufacturing, and in particular to a synchronous cooling device, an arc additive manufacturing device and a method. Background Art

[0002] Arc additive manufacturing technology uses arc as a heat source to deposit molten metal materials on the substrate according to the forming path, directly forming metal parts with complex shapes. Compared with additive manufacturing using lasers and electron beams as heat sources, arc additive manufacturing is slightly inferior in dimensional accuracy, but it has great advantages in forming efficiency, forming capacity, equipment mobility and anti-interference ability. It is especially suitable for the preparation of large-scale complex structure metal parts, and has the advantages of low cost, fast and efficient forming.

[0003] However, in the arc additive manufacturing process, the arc heat accumulates layer by layer. Excessive heat and temperature can easily lead to deformation of parts during the forming process, unstable stacking layer height, and other problems, thus affecting the forming accuracy and quality of the parts. Therefore, after each layer of metal parts is arc additively manufactured, the stacking layer needs to be cooled to reduce the interlayer temperature to an appropriate range. The length of the interlayer temperature cooling time not only affects the efficiency of additive manufacturing, but also for some materials with low thermal conductivity, such as titanium alloys, low alloy steels, and stainless steels, the lower cooling rate will also increase the tendency of grain growth and affect the mechanical properties of the formed components.

[0004] However, existing cooling devices have problems such as poor cooling effect and low cooling efficiency, high cost and poor adaptability. Some cooling devices or methods may also cause internal defects in the formed parts to a certain extent, leading to problems such as a decrease in comprehensive mechanical properties. Summary of the invention

[0005] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a synchronous cooling device for arc additive manufacturing, aiming to enable flexible contact heat transfer between the cooling metal ball and the additive component, thereby improving the heat transfer efficiency of the cooling device.

[0006] Another object of the present invention is to provide an arc additive manufacturing device and method, which has high cooling efficiency, can reduce internal defects of formed components, and ensure mechanical properties.

[0007] The present invention solves the technical problem by adopting the following technical solutions.

[0008] The present invention proposes a synchronous cooling device for arc additive manufacturing, comprising a cooling chamber, the cooling chamber having an operating end face and a cooling end face opposite to the operating end face, a plurality of accommodating holes being arranged on the cooling end face of the cooling chamber, a plurality of cooling metal balls being filled in the cooling chamber, some of the cooling metal balls being exposed from the accommodating holes and being rotatable in the accommodating holes;

[0009] A cooling pipeline for cooling the cooling metal ball is also arranged in the inner cavity of the cooling chamber; a first mounting port for mounting a welding gun is arranged on the operating end surface, and a second mounting port corresponding to the first mounting port is arranged on the cooling end surface.

[0010] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there are multiple cooling pipes, and each cooling pipe is wound and extended from one end of the cooling chamber close to the operating end surface to the other end close to the cooling end surface, and an accommodating channel for accommodating cooling metal balls is formed between two adjacent cooling pipes; preferably, the cooling metal balls are made of red copper.

[0011] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each cooling pipeline is wound at a fixed radius from the central axis of the cooling chamber.

[0012] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of cooling medium inlets and a plurality of cooling medium outlets are provided on the operating end surface of the cooling chamber, the inlet of each cooling pipeline is connected to a cooling medium inlet, and the outlet of each cooling pipeline is connected to a cooling medium outlet.

[0013] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a cooling air inlet is provided on the operating end surface of the cooling chamber, and a plurality of air outlets are provided on the cooling end surface of the cooling chamber; preferably, the aperture of the air outlet is smaller than the aperture of the accommodating hole.

[0014] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the cooling chamber includes a cooling cavity with a top opening and a cooling cover plate for covering the cooling cavity. The cooling cover plate and the cooling cavity are detachably connected, the operating end surface is the top surface of the cooling cover plate, and the cooling end surface is the bottom end surface of the cooling cavity.

[0015] The present invention also proposes an arc additive manufacturing device, comprising a welding gun and the above-mentioned synchronous cooling device, wherein the welding gun passes through the first mounting opening and the second mounting opening in sequence and then extends out from the cooling end surface.

[0016] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a clamping assembly for fixing the welding gun is also installed on the operating end surface.

[0017] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the clamping assembly includes a plurality of clamping mechanisms distributed circumferentially along the operating end surface of the cooling chamber; each clamping mechanism includes a fixed block and a clamping bolt, the fixed block is provided with an internal thread matching the thread of the clamping bolt, the fixed block is fixed to the operating end surface, the fixed block has a rotating end for rotating the clamping bolt and a clamping end opposite to the rotating end for clamping the welding gun, and the shape of the clamping end of the fixed block matches the shape of the welding gun.

[0018] The present invention also provides an arc additive manufacturing method, which adopts the above-mentioned arc additive manufacturing device and enables a synchronous cooling device to move synchronously with the welding gun for cooling.

[0019] The beneficial effect of a synchronous cooling device for arc additive manufacturing provided by an embodiment of the present invention is that the cooling metal ball is cooled by a cooling pipeline in the cooling chamber, and the cooling metal ball rotates in the accommodating hole during the manufacturing process to achieve flexible contact heat transfer with the additive component before and after welding, which is beneficial to further improve the heat transfer efficiency.

[0020] An embodiment of the present invention also provides an arc additive manufacturing device and method, which uses a synchronous cooling device and a welding gun to perform cooling during the additive manufacturing process, and uses cooling metal balls to perform flexible contact heat transfer with the additive component, which has higher heat transfer efficiency and is beneficial to reducing internal defects of the formed component and ensuring mechanical properties. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings required for use in the embodiments are briefly introduced below. It should be understood that the following drawings only show certain embodiments of the present invention and therefore should not be regarded as limiting the scope. For ordinary technicians in this field, other related drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative work.

[0022] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the structure of an arc additive manufacturing device provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0023] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the structure of a synchronous cooling device provided by an embodiment of the present invention from a first perspective;

[0024] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the structure of a synchronous cooling device provided by an embodiment of the present invention from a second perspective;

[0025] Figure 4 for Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the structure in the cooling cavity.

[0026] Icons: 10-arc additive manufacturing device; 001-substrate; 002-additive component; 100-synchronous cooling device; 110-cooling cabin; 111-operating end face; 112-cooling end face; 113-cooling cavity; 114-cooling cover plate; 115-accommodating hole; 116-cooling medium inlet; 117-cooling medium outlet; 118-cooling gas inlet; 119-air outlet; 120-cooling metal ball; 130-cooling pipeline; 131-accommodating channel; 132-inlet; 133-outlet; 200-welding gun; 201-welding wire; 300-clamping assembly; 310-clamping mechanism; 311-fixing block; 312-clamping bolt; 313-rotating end; 314-clamping end. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the present invention, rather than all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention. Therefore, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention provided in the drawings is not intended to limit the scope of the invention claimed for protection, but merely represents the selected embodiments of the present invention. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0028] In the description of the present invention, it is necessary to understand that the terms "center", "up", "down", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inside", "outside", etc., indicating the orientation or position relationship are based on the orientation or position relationship shown in the drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as a limitation on the present invention.

[0029] In the present invention, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, the terms "installed", "connected", "connected", "fixed" and the like should be understood in a broad sense, for example, it can be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral connection; it can be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; it can be a direct connection or an indirect connection through an intermediate medium, it can be the internal connection of two elements or the interaction relationship between two elements. For ordinary technicians in this field, the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood according to specific circumstances.

[0030] In the present invention, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, a first feature being "above" or "below" a second feature may include that the first and second features are in direct contact, or may include that the first and second features are not in direct contact but are in contact through another feature between them. Moreover, a first feature being "above", "above" and "above" a second feature includes that the first feature is directly above and obliquely above the second feature, or simply indicates that the first feature is higher in level than the second feature. A first feature being "below", "below" and "below" a second feature includes that the first feature is directly below and obliquely below the second feature, or simply indicates that the first feature is lower in level than the second feature.

[0031] The synchronous cooling device, arc additive manufacturing device and method provided in the embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below.

[0032] Please refer to Figure 1 An embodiment of the present invention provides an arc additive manufacturing device 10, including a welding gun 200 and a synchronous cooling device 100, and the synchronous cooling device 100 and the welding gun 200 move synchronously to cool the additive component 002 on the substrate 001 before and after welding.

[0033] Specifically, the welding gun 200 is an existing structure, which performs additive manufacturing through the welding wire 201, and will not be described in detail here. The arc additive manufacturing device 10 may also include an industrial robot, a welding power source, a control system, and the like.

[0034] Please combine Figure 1 and Figure 2 The synchronous cooling device 100 includes a cooling chamber 110, which has an operating end face 111 and a cooling end face 112 opposite to the operating end face 111. The operating end face 111 is provided with a first mounting port (not shown) for mounting a welding gun 200, and the cooling end face 112 is provided with a second mounting port corresponding to the first mounting port. The welding gun 200 passes through the first mounting port and the second mounting port in sequence and then extends from the cooling end face 112. The first mounting port and the second mounting port can be located at the center of the cooling chamber 110 to cool the additive component after welding more evenly during use.

[0035] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a clamping assembly 300 for fixing the welding gun 200 is also installed on the operating end surface 111. The welding gun 200 is clamped and fixed by the clamping assembly 300, which is more stable during use and prevents the welding gun 200 from being separated from the synchronous cooling device 100. The clamping assembly 300 can adopt an existing device for fixing the welding gun 200, and is not limited to the specific structure in the drawings.

[0036] Furthermore, the clamping assembly 300 includes a plurality of clamping mechanisms 310 distributed circumferentially along the operating end surface 111 of the cooling chamber 110; each clamping mechanism 310 includes a fixing block 311 and a clamping bolt 312, the fixing block 311 is provided with an internal thread matching the thread of the clamping bolt 312, the fixing block 311 is fixed to the operating end surface 111, the fixing block 311 has a rotating end 313 for rotating the clamping bolt 312 and a clamping end 314 opposite to the rotating end 313 for clamping the welding gun 200, and the shape of the clamping end 314 of the fixing block 311 matches the outer shape of the welding gun 200. The clamping bolt 312 is rotated in the fixing block 311, and when the clamping bolt is extended to the clamping end 314, the welding gun 200 is clamped to make the connection more stable; the shape of the clamping end 314 matches the shape of the welding gun 200 to make the clamping more stable. For example, if the shape of the welding gun 200 is cylindrical, the clamping ends 314 of the multiple fixing blocks 311 surround a circular curved surface to better fit the shape of the welding gun 200.

[0037] Specifically, the fixing block 311 can be divided into two parts, which are spaced apart in the middle, such as Figure 1-2 as shown in .

[0038] Furthermore, the cooling chamber 110 includes a cooling cavity 113 with an opening at the top and a cooling cover plate 114 for covering the cooling cavity 113. The cooling cover plate 114 and the cooling cavity 113 are detachably connected. The operating end surface 111 is the top surface of the cooling cover plate 114, and the cooling end surface 112 is the bottom end surface of the cooling cavity 113. The cooling cover plate 114 and the cooling cavity 113 can be fixed by screws. When the structure in the cooling cavity 113 needs to be inspected or replaced, the screws can be removed to facilitate observation of the situation in the cooling cavity 113.

[0039] Furthermore, please combine Figure 3 and Figure 4 The inner cavity of the cooling chamber 110 (i.e., the cooling cavity 113) is filled with a plurality of cooling metal balls 120, and a cooling pipeline 130 for cooling the cooling metal balls 120 is also provided in the inner cavity of the cooling chamber 110; a plurality of accommodating holes 115 for accommodating the cooling metal balls 120 are provided on the cooling end surface 112 of the cooling chamber 110, so that the cooling metal balls 120 close to the cooling end surface 112 rotate in the accommodating holes 115. The cooling metal balls 120 are cooled by the cooling pipeline 130 in the cooling chamber 110, and the cooling metal balls 120 rotate in the accommodating holes 115 during the manufacturing process, so as to realize flexible contact heat transfer with the additive components before and after welding, which is conducive to further improving the heat transfer efficiency.

[0040] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a cooling air inlet 118 is provided on the operating end surface 111 of the cooling chamber 110, and a plurality of air outlets 119 are provided on the cooling end surface 112 of the cooling chamber 110; preferably, the aperture of the air outlet 119 is smaller than the aperture of the accommodation hole 115. The cooling air inlet 118 is connected to an external cooling air delivery pipeline to deliver the cooling gas into the cooling chamber 110 and output through the air outlet 119, so that the cooling air can be used to take away part of the heat during operation.

[0041] It should be added that the embodiment of the present invention realizes synchronous cooling of the additive component by the cooling metal ball 120 and the surface of the additive manufacturing component to conduct heat flexibly and the cooling gas takes away the heat of the surface of the additive component. The device has a simple structure and strong applicability, and can improve the forming quality of additive manufacturing while reducing the heat accumulation of the additive component and saving the heat dissipation time.

[0042] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there are multiple cooling pipelines 130, and each cooling pipeline 130 extends from one end of the cooling chamber 110 close to the operating end surface 111 to one end close to the cooling end surface 112, and a receiving channel 131 for receiving the cooling metal ball 120 is formed between two adjacent cooling pipelines 130. The multiple cooling pipelines 130 winding in a serpentine shape are used to cool the inner cavity of the cooling chamber 110, and a receiving channel 131 is formed between two adjacent cooling pipelines 130 to cool the cooling metal ball 120 filled therein, and the cooling effect is relatively ideal. At the same time, the receiving channel 131 has a limiting effect on the cooling metal ball 120.

[0043] In some embodiments, each cooling line 130 is wound at a fixed radius from the central axis of the cooling chamber 110. In a regular multi-turn winding form, a receiving channel 131 with a fixed spacing is formed between two adjacent cooling lines 130 to adapt to the size of the cooling metal ball 120.

[0044] In a preferred embodiment, the cooling metal ball 120 is made of copper, and the cooling pipeline 130 may also be a copper pipe to further enhance the cooling effect.

[0045] Furthermore, the operating end surface 111 of the cooling chamber 110 is provided with a plurality of cooling medium inlets 116 and a plurality of cooling medium outlets 117, the inlet 132 of each cooling pipeline 130 is connected to a cooling medium inlet 116, and the outlet 133 of each cooling pipeline 130 is connected to a cooling medium outlet 117. Figure 4In the figure, the inlet 132 and the outlet 133 are both located at the bottom, which is just a schematic diagram. In fact, the inlet 132 can be located at the top and the outlet 133 can be located at the bottom. The inlet 132 is connected to the cooling medium inlet 116 through another connecting pipeline, and the outlet 133 is connected to the cooling medium outlet 117 through another connecting pipeline.

[0046] The embodiment of the present invention further provides an arc additive manufacturing method, which adopts the above-mentioned arc additive manufacturing device to make the synchronous cooling device 100 and the welding gun 200 move synchronously for cooling.

[0047] The specific operation process is as follows: (1) Preparation before arc additive manufacturing: fix the processed substrate 001 on the workbench, check that everything is normal, and then open the cooling water and cooling air valves; (2) Implement arc additive manufacturing: during the arc additive manufacturing process, the synchronous cooling device 100 is fixed to the welding gun 200 and moves synchronously with the welding gun 200, so that the additive component before and after welding can be flexibly in contact with the cooling metal ball 120 for heat transfer. At the same time, the cooling air coming out of the air outlet 119 at the bottom of the cooling chamber 110 can also take away some of the heat on the additive component. When one layer of accumulation is completed, the welding gun rises to a certain height and continues to accumulate the next layer. The above accumulation process is repeated in sequence to complete the preparation of complex additive components.

[0048] It should be added that when the additive component 002 cannot be reduced to the required temperature through one synchronous cooling, the arc can be turned off, and the synchronous cooling device 100 can be moved along the previous path multiple times until the temperature meets the requirements, and then the arc can be turned on to carry out the next layer of additive manufacturing.

[0049] In summary, the synchronous cooling device for arc additive manufacturing provided by the present invention cools the cooling metal ball through the cooling pipeline in the cooling cabin. During the manufacturing process, the cooling metal ball rotates in the accommodating hole to achieve flexible contact heat transfer with the additive component before and after welding, which is conducive to further improving the heat transfer efficiency.

[0050] An embodiment of the present invention also provides an arc additive manufacturing device and method, which uses a synchronous cooling device and a welding gun to perform cooling during the additive manufacturing process, and uses cooling metal balls to perform flexible contact heat transfer with the additive component, which has higher heat transfer efficiency and is beneficial to reducing internal defects of the formed component and ensuring mechanical properties.

[0051] The embodiments described above are part of the embodiments of the present invention, rather than all of the embodiments. The detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention is not intended to limit the scope of the invention claimed for protection, but merely represents selected embodiments of the present invention. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A synchronous cooling device for arc additive manufacturing, characterized in that: The cooling chamber comprises a cooling chamber, wherein the cooling chamber has an operating end face and a cooling end face opposite to the operating end face, a plurality of accommodating holes are arranged on the cooling end face of the cooling chamber, a plurality of cooling metal balls are filled in the cooling chamber, and some of the cooling metal balls are exposed from the accommodating holes and can rotate in the accommodating holes; A cooling pipeline for cooling the cooling metal ball is also provided in the inner cavity of the cooling chamber; a first mounting port for mounting a welding gun is provided on the operating end surface, and a second mounting port corresponding to the first mounting port is provided on the cooling end surface; The cooling metal ball is made of copper.

2. The synchronous cooling device according to claim 1, characterized in that: There are multiple cooling pipelines, and each cooling pipeline is wound and extended from one end of the cooling chamber body close to the operating end surface to one end close to the cooling end surface, and an accommodating channel for accommodating the cooling metal ball is formed between two adjacent cooling pipelines.

3. The synchronous cooling device according to claim 2, characterized in that: Each of the cooling pipelines is wound at a fixed radius from the central axis of the cooling chamber.

4. The synchronous cooling device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: The operating end surface of the cooling chamber is provided with a plurality of cooling medium inlets and a plurality of cooling medium outlets, the inlet of each cooling pipeline is connected to one cooling medium inlet, and the outlet of each cooling pipeline is connected to one cooling medium outlet.

5. The synchronous cooling device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The operating end surface of the cooling chamber body is provided with a cooling air inlet, and the cooling end surface of the cooling chamber body is provided with a plurality of air outlets.

6. The synchronous cooling device according to claim 5, characterized in that: The diameter of the air outlet hole is smaller than the diameter of the accommodating hole.

7. The synchronous cooling device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The cooling chamber comprises a cooling cavity with an opening at the top and a cooling cover plate for covering the cooling cavity, the cooling cover plate and the cooling cavity are detachably connected, the operating end surface is the top surface of the cooling cover plate, and the cooling end surface is the bottom end surface of the cooling cavity.

8. An arc additive manufacturing device, characterized in that: It comprises a welding gun and a synchronous cooling device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the welding gun passes through the first mounting opening and the second mounting opening in sequence and then extends out from the cooling end surface.

9. The arc additive manufacturing device according to claim 8, characterized in that: A clamping assembly for fixing the welding gun is also installed on the operating end surface.

10. The arc additive manufacturing device according to claim 9, characterized in that: The clamping assembly comprises a plurality of clamping mechanisms distributed along the circumference of the operating end surface of the cooling chamber; Each of the clamping mechanisms includes a fixed block and a clamping bolt. The fixed block is provided with an internal thread that matches the thread of the clamping bolt. The fixed block is fixed to the operating end surface. The fixed block has a rotating end for rotating the clamping bolt and a clamping end opposite to the rotating end for clamping the welding gun. The shape of the clamping end of the fixed block matches the shape of the welding gun.

11. A method of arc additive manufacturing, characterized in that: It adopts the arc additive manufacturing device described in any one of claims 8 to 10, so that the synchronous cooling device moves synchronously with the welding gun for cooling.

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