Calibration method for 3D printer and 3D printer

Abstract

A calibration method for a 3D printer and a 3D printer. The calibration method includes: moving an extruder toward a deformable member on a printing platform so that a first fluid extrusion head and a second fluid extrusion head contact and press into the deformable member, so as to form a first depression and a second depression on the upper surface of the deformable member respectively; moving the extruder away from the printing platform so that the first fluid extrusion head and the second fluid extrusion head are separated from the deformable member; scanning the upper surface of the deformable member with a profilometer to obtain scanned images of the first depression and the second depression; determining a first pixel point representing a feature point of the first depression and a second pixel point representing a feature point of the second depression from the scanned image; and determining a relative position of the first fluid extrusion head relative to the second fluid extrusion head according to the first pixel point and the second pixel point.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the technical field of 3D printing, and in particular to a calibration method for a 3D printer, a 3D printer, a computer-readable storage medium, and a computer program product. Background Art

[0002] 3D printer, also known as three-dimensional printer, stereo printer, is a kind of rapid prototyping process equipment, usually realized by printing materials with digital technology. 3D printers are often used to make models or parts in the fields of mold manufacturing, industrial design, etc. In recent years, 3D printing technology has great application prospects in jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), automobiles, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, firearms and other fields.

[0003] In the existing 3D printing technology, when printing an object to be printed including a suspended part, it is necessary to first print an additional support part, and then print the 3D object on the support part. Finally, after the printed object is formed, the additional support part is removed from the printed object. At present, a mainstream method for removing the support part from the printed object is to apply additional ink on the support part after printing the support part, which is easy to separate from the printed object. This requires that two extruders for outputting printing materials and ink are set on the 3D printer respectively.

[0004] The methods described in this section are not necessarily methods that have been previously conceived or employed. Unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any method described in this section is considered to be prior art simply because it is included in this section. Similarly, unless otherwise indicated, the issues mentioned in this section should not be considered to have been recognized in any prior art. Summary of the invention

[0005] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a calibration method for a 3D printer is provided, wherein the 3D printer includes: an extruder, a first fluid extrusion head arranged on the extruder, a second fluid extrusion head arranged on the extruder, a profilometer, and a printing platform arranged below the extruder, and the method includes: moving the extruder toward a deformable member on the printing platform so that the first fluid extrusion head and the second fluid extrusion head contact and press into the deformable member to form a first depression and a second depression on the upper surface of the deformable member, respectively; moving the extruder away from the printing platform so that the first fluid extrusion head and the second fluid extrusion head are separated from the deformable member; causing the profilometer to scan the upper surface of the deformable member to obtain a scanned image of the first depression and the second depression; determining a first pixel point representing a feature point of the first depression and a second pixel point representing a feature point of the second depression from the scanned image; and determining a relative position of the first fluid extrusion head relative to the second fluid extrusion head based on the first pixel point and the second pixel point.

[0006] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a 3D printing method is also provided, comprising: executing the above-mentioned calibration method for a 3D printer; and when applying a first fluid using a first fluid extrusion head to a printed object that has been printed using a second fluid extrusion head, correcting a motion trajectory of the extruder according to a relative position of the first fluid extrusion head relative to the second fluid extrusion head.

[0007] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a 3D printer is provided, comprising: an extruder; a first fluid extrusion head, disposed on the extruder and configured to output a first fluid; a second fluid extrusion head, disposed on the extruder and configured to output a second fluid; a printing platform, disposed below the extruder; a driving mechanism, connected to the extruder and configured to drive the extruder to move; a profilometer, configured to scan the upper surface of a deformable part mounted on the printing platform; and a processor, configured to implement the above method when executing instructions.

[0008] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium is provided, on which a computer program is stored, wherein the computer program implements the steps of the above method when executed by a processor.

[0009] According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program product is provided, including a computer program, wherein the steps of the above method are implemented when the computer program is executed by a processor. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] In the accompanying drawings, unless otherwise specified, the same reference numerals throughout the multiple drawings represent the same or similar parts or elements. These drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. It should be understood that these drawings only depict some embodiments disclosed in the present application and should not be regarded as limiting the scope of the present application.

[0011] Figure 1 A schematic structural diagram of a 3D printer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown;

[0012] Figure 2 A partial structural schematic diagram of an extruder part of a 3D printer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown;

[0013] Figure 3 A flow chart of a calibration method for a 3D printer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown;

[0014] Figure 4 Shown according to Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a deformable member after forming a first recess and a second recess according to the method shown;

[0015] Figure 5 According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, Figure 3 Flow chart of a preparatory method performed before the calibration method;

[0016] Figure 6 A flow chart of a 3D printing method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] In the following, only some exemplary embodiments are briefly described. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the described embodiments may be modified in various ways without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the drawings and descriptions are considered to be exemplary and non-restrictive in nature.

[0018] In practice, the ink extruder head is usually a consumable, which means that the extruder head needs to be replaced frequently, so the ink extruder head is generally set on the 3D printer in a detachable manner. The inventor found that this brings the following problems: there may be an error in the installation position each time the ink extruder head is installed, resulting in a difference between the actual installation position of the ink extruder head and its design value, which causes the ink extruder head to be unable to apply ink at the correct target position during the printing process, making the subsequent separation effect worse.

[0019] In view of this, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a 3D printer and a calibration method for the 3D printer, which can alleviate, mitigate or even eliminate the above-mentioned problems.

[0020] The following will refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2 The 3D printer according to the embodiment of the present disclosure is described in detail. Figure 1 FIG. 1 shows a schematic structural diagram of a 3D printer 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 2A partial structural schematic diagram of the extruder 140 of the 3D printer 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0021] like Figure 1 , Figure 2 As shown, the 3D printer 100 includes: a printing platform 160, an extruder 140, a first fluid extrusion head 110, a second fluid extrusion head 120, a profilometer 130, a first guide rod 170, a second guide rod 180, a driving mechanism 150 and a processor 190. The driving mechanism 150 is used to drive the extruder 140 to move. In an embodiment, the driving mechanism 150 includes: a first motor, a second motor and a third motor. The printing platform 160 is arranged at the bottom of the 3D printer 100, which is used to support the object to be printed, and its upper surface is a printing plane. In addition to being used to support the object to be printed, the printing plane can also be used to install a deformable member 161 that will be described in detail later. The space above the printing platform 160 is a printing space for printing the object to be printed. The extruder 140 can move in the above-mentioned printing space to control the corresponding extrusion head to apply the fluid for printing toward the printing plane. The first guide rod 170 and the second guide rod 180 are two guide rods that cross each other, and the first guide rod 170 is extended along the first direction, and the second guide rod 180 is extended along the second direction. The extruder 140 is arranged on the two guide rods, and can move bidirectionally on the first guide rod 170 and the second guide rod 180 respectively. The printing plane can be parallel to both the first guide rod 170 and the second guide rod 180, that is, the printing plane can be defined by the first direction and the second direction that cross each other. The first motor is, for example, arranged on the first guide rod 170 and connected to the extruder 140, and is used to drive the extruder 140 to reciprocate in the first direction where the first guide rod 170 is located. The second motor is, for example, arranged on the second guide rod 180 and connected to the extruder 140, and is used to drive the extruder 140 to reciprocate in the second direction where the second guide rod 180 is located. In an embodiment, the above-mentioned first direction and the second direction can be perpendicular to each other. For ease of description, the first direction is defined as the X direction, and the second direction is defined as the Y direction. The extruder 140 can be driven by the first motor and the second motor to move on the XY plane of the printing space. The third motor can be connected to the first guide rod 170 and the second guide rod 180 at the same time, and is configured to drive the first guide rod 170, the second guide rod 180 and the extruder 140 to move as a whole along a third direction, and the third direction is orthogonal to the first direction and the second direction, that is, the third direction is a direction toward or away from the printing platform 160. In an embodiment, the third direction can be a vertical direction, that is, Figure 1 The processor 190 can be electrically connected to the first motor, the second motor and the third motor of the driving mechanism 150 respectively, and calculate the position of the extruder 140 in the printing space at a certain moment according to the specific movement process of the extruder 140.

[0022] like Figure 2 As shown, the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are both disposed on the extruder 140. The first fluid extrusion head 110 is generally a consumable and needs to be replaced frequently, so the first fluid extrusion head 110 is disposed on the extruder 140 in a detachable manner for easy replacement. Figure 2 As shown, the first fluid extrusion head 110 is arranged downward (toward the printing platform 160) for applying the first fluid to the object to be printed. Exemplarily, the first fluid extrusion head 110 can be arranged on the extruder 140 by means of a snap-on connection. The second fluid extrusion head 120 is a non-consumable material, which is fixedly arranged on the extruder 140 and is also arranged downward (toward the printing platform 160) for applying the second fluid to the object to be printed. There is a certain interval between the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 to prevent interference between the two extrusion heads.

[0023] The first fluid and the second fluid may be different fluids for 3D printing. In an embodiment, the first fluid may be a release material, and the second fluid may be a printing material. The printing material is a building material that ultimately forms an object to be printed (or a target object). The release material may be applied between two parts formed by the printing material to facilitate separation of the two parts. Examples of printing materials include, but are not limited to, liquid photosensitive resins, powdered materials such as nylon, etc. The release material may be, for example, ink.

[0024] It is understandable that, in some embodiments, the first fluid can be a printing material, the second fluid can be a release material, or the first fluid and the second fluid can be printing materials of different materials. In addition, in an embodiment, the first fluid extrusion head 110 is detachably arranged on the extruder, and the second fluid extrusion head 120 is fixedly arranged on the extruder. In some embodiments, the second fluid extrusion head 120 is detachably arranged on the extruder, and the first fluid extrusion head 110 is fixedly arranged on the extruder, or both fluid extrusion heads are arranged on the extruder in a fixed / detachable manner. In short, the implementation of the present disclosure is not limited by the material type of the first fluid, the second fluid, and the installation method of the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120.

[0025] In an embodiment, the profiler 130 may be a non-contact profiler such as an optical profiler. The above-mentioned profiler 130 may perform sub-nanometer measurement detection on the surfaces of various devices. The profiler 130 uses white light interferometry technology as a principle, combines a scanning probe and related 3D modeling algorithms, etc. to perform non-contact scanning on the device surface and establish a surface 3D image, and then performs data processing and analysis on the device surface 3D image through related software, thereby realizing 3D measurement of the device surface morphology. In an embodiment, the profiler 130 is used to scan the upper surface of the deformable member 161 mounted on the printing plane for subsequent calibration operations. The profiler 130 may be mounted on the extruder 140, move with the extruder 140, and be electrically connected to the processor 190. Before the profiler 130 scans the deformable member 161, the extruder 140 may be used to bring the profiler 130 to a suitable scanning position. The profiler 130 includes a movable or rotatable scanning probe, which may continuously scan the upper surface of the deformable member 161 and obtain a scanned image. The scanned image may be input into the processor 190 for image processing.

[0026] The processor 190 is configured to perform operations when executing instructions, and the operations include: moving the extruder toward the deformable member 161 on the printing platform 160 so that the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 contact and press into the deformable member 161, so as to form a first recess 162 and a second recess 163 on the upper surface of the deformable member 161 respectively; moving the extruder away from the printing platform 160 so that the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are separated from the deformable member 161; causing the profilometer 130 to scan the upper surface of the deformable member 161 to obtain a scanned image of the first recess 162 and the second recess 163; determining a first pixel point representing a feature point of the first recess 162 and a second pixel point representing a feature point of the second recess 163 from the scanned image; and determining a relative position of the first fluid extrusion head 110 relative to the second fluid extrusion head 120 according to the first pixel point and the second pixel point.

[0027] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a calibration method for a 3D printer 100 is also provided. Figure 3 to Figure 4 The calibration method is described in detail.

[0028] Figure 3 A flow chart of a calibration method 300 for a 3D printer 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. The 3D printer 100 includes: an extruder 140, a first fluid extrusion head 110 disposed on the extruder 140, a second fluid extrusion head 120 disposed on the extruder 140, a profilometer 130, and a printing platform 160 disposed below the extruder 140. The calibration method 300 includes:

[0029] Step 301, moving the extruder 140 toward the deformable member 161 on the printing platform 160 so that the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 contact and press into the deformable member 161, so as to form a first recess 162 and a second recess 163 on the upper surface of the deformable member 161 respectively;

[0030] Step 302 , moving the extruder 140 away from the printing platform 160 so that the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are separated from the deformable member 161 ;

[0031] Step 303 , enabling the profilometer 130 to scan the upper surface of the deformable member 161 to obtain scanned images of the first recess 162 and the second recess 163 ;

[0032] Step 304, determining a first pixel point representing a feature point of the first concave 162 and a second pixel point representing a feature point of the second concave 163 from the scanned image;

[0033] Step 305 : determining the relative position of the first fluid extrusion head 110 with respect to the second fluid extrusion head 120 according to the first pixel point and the second pixel point.

[0034] According to the calibration method 300, two depressions representing the relative positions of two different extruder heads are obtained using the deformable member 161, and then the relative position relationship between the two extruder heads is obtained, so that in the subsequent 3D printing process, it can be ensured that the first fluid is accurately applied to the target position on the 3D object to be printed.

[0035] Before executing the method 300, the deformable member 161 may be pre-installed on the printing platform 160. In an embodiment, the deformable member 161 is detachably arranged on the printing platform 160, and when the 3D printer needs to be calibrated, the deformable member 161 may be installed on the printing platform 160. When performing formal 3D printing, the deformable member 161 may be removed from the printing platform 160 to prevent it from affecting the printing operation. Exemplarily, a groove may be set at a specific position on the printing platform 160, and the deformable member 161 may be placed in the groove to complete the installation. For another example, an installation mark may be pre-set on the printing platform 160, and when the deformable member 161 is installed, it is directly placed at the marked position of the printing platform 160. The installation process of the above-mentioned deformable member 161 may be completed by the operator of the 3D printer. The above-mentioned deformable member 161 may be an elastic deformable member, including but not limited to shape memory sponge, rubber, etc., or a plastic deformable member, including but not limited to foam plastic, clay, etc. It will be understood that after a material is plastically deformed by an external force, it cannot recover on its own after the external force is removed, and after a material is elastically deformed by an external force, the deformation disappears and the material returns to its original state after the external force is removed.

[0036] In step 301, the processor 190 sends a control instruction to the driving mechanism 150, firstly, the driving mechanism 150 drives the extruder 140 to move to a position where the lower ends of the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 have an initial height h from the printing plane, and then the driving mechanism 150 drives the extruder 140 to move along the third direction (i.e., downward) toward the printing platform 160, and makes the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 on the extruder 140 approach and contact the deformable member 161 on the printing platform 160, and finally press into the deformable member 161. During the pressing process, the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 cause the corresponding areas of the deformable member 161 to deform, and form the first recess 162 and the second recess 163 on the deformable member 161 respectively. In the specific operation process, the first motor and the second motor in the driving mechanism 150 can stop working, and the third motor in the driving mechanism 150 drives the extruder 140 to move along the negative direction of the Z axis. The movement distance of the extruder 140 can be set according to the depth of the deformable member 161 to be pressed, or according to the initial height h and the thickness t of the deformable member 161. For example, when the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 need to be pressed to a depth of half the thickness of the deformable member 161, the movement distance of the extruder 140 can be set to ht / 2. Figure 1In the embodiment, the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are shown to have the same downwardly extending length, but it is understood that in some embodiments, the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 may have different lengths. In this case, the above movement distance also needs to ensure that the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are both pressed into the deformable member 161.

[0037] In step 302, the processor 190 sends a control instruction to the driving mechanism 150, so that the driving mechanism 150 drives the extruder 140 to move away from the printing platform 160 along the third direction, and makes the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 on the extruder 140 leave the deformable member 161 on the printing platform 160. The driving mechanism 150 can drive the extruder 140 to return to the initial height h. In some embodiments, before the driving mechanism 150 drives the extruder 140 to move away from the printing platform 160 along the third direction, the driving mechanism 150 can also stop working for a preset time period so that the extruder 140 remains stationary to strengthen the formation of the first depression 162 and the second depression 163. Figure 4 Shown according to Figure 3 Schematic diagram of the deformable member 161 after the first recess 162 and the second recess 163 are formed by the method. Figure 4 As shown, in the embodiment, the end surfaces of the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are both spherical curved surfaces, so the first recess 162 and the second recess 163 formed correspondingly are both circular recesses.

[0038] In step 303, the processor 190 sends a control instruction to the profiler 130, so that the profiler 130 scans the upper surface of the deformable member 161 to obtain a scanned image of the first depression 162 and the second depression 163. In an embodiment, the profiler 130 may be disposed on the extruder 140. In this case, before the profiler 130 scans, the driving mechanism 150 may first drive the extruder 140 to reach a scanning position so that the profiler 130 can scan. In an example, the first motor and the second motor may drive the extruder 140 to move on the XY plane and reach the above-mentioned scanning position, at which the profiler 130 is located above the edge of the deformable member 161. In an embodiment, the deformable member 161 may be in a rectangular shape, and the edge of the deformable member 161 may be any side of the rectangle. After the extruder 140 reaches the scanning position, the profiler 130 starts scanning. The scanning probe of the profiler 130 may scan from the first edge of the deformable member 161 to the second edge of the deformable member 161 opposite to the first edge. For example, Figure 4As shown, at the beginning of scanning, the profilometer 130 is located directly above the edge a1 of the deformable member 161, and the scanning probe of the profilometer 130 scans from the edge a1 to the edge a2 to complete the scanning of the entire upper surface of the deformable member 161. After the profilometer 130 completes the scanning, the scanning images of the first depression 162 and the second depression 163 are obtained. As described above, the deformable member 161 can be installed at a specific position on the printing platform 160, so that the 3D printer can obtain the position of the calibrated specific edge of the deformable member 161 in advance. Then, the position of the extruder 140 on the XY plane is adjusted so that the profilometer 130 is located above the specific edge to facilitate the execution of the subsequent scanning steps.

[0039] In step 304, the scanned image obtained in step 303 may be input into the processor 190, and the processor 190 performs image processing on the scanned image, and then determines a first pixel point representing a feature point of the first recess 162 and a second pixel point representing a feature point of the second recess 163. In an embodiment, the feature point of the first recess 162 includes the center point of the first recess 162, and the feature point of the second recess 163 includes the center point of the second recess 163. In the above example, the ends of the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are both spherical surfaces, and the fluid output points of the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are located in the middle of the spherical surface, so the relative position between the two extrusion heads is determined by the center points of the first recess 162 and the second recess 163. In some embodiments, the ends of the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 are non-spherical surfaces. In this case, the characteristic point of the first recess 162 can be selected as the lowest point of the first recess 162, and the characteristic point of the second recess 163 can be selected as the lowest point of the second recess 163.

[0040] In step 305, the first coordinate (X1, Y1) indicating the position of the first pixel point in the scanned image and the second coordinate (X2, Y2) indicating the position of the second pixel point in the scanned image can be obtained first. In the case where the scanned image replicates the shapes of the first recess 162 and the second recess 163 in 1:1, the relative position (ΔX, ΔY) of the first fluid extrusion head 110 relative to the second fluid extrusion head 120 can be obtained by directly subtracting the second coordinate from the first coordinate, where ΔX=X1-X2 and ΔY=Y1-Y2. In the case where there is a certain scaling ratio between the scanned image and the shapes of the first recess 162 and the second recess 163, the relative position of the first fluid extrusion head 110 relative to the second fluid extrusion head 120 needs to be calculated according to the scaling ratio.

[0041] Figure 5 According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, Figure 3Flow chart of the preparation method 500 performed before the calibration method 300. Figure 5 As shown, the method 500 includes:

[0042] Step 501, determining that the deformable member 161 is installed on the printing platform 160;

[0043] Step 502 , moving the extruder 140 to above the deformable member 161 , so that the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 fall into the range of the deformable member 161 .

[0044] In an embodiment, a sensing device, such as a pressure sensor, may be provided at the installation position of the deformable member 161 on the printing platform 160. The sensing device may be electrically connected to the processor. In step 501, when the deformable member 161 is installed on the printing platform 160, the deformable member 161 touches the sensing device, and the sensing device generates a trigger signal and transmits the trigger signal to the processor 190. After receiving the trigger signal, the processor 190 determines that the deformable member 161 has been installed on the printing platform 160.

[0045] In step 502, the processor 190 sends a control instruction to the drive mechanism 150 to drive the extruder 140 to reach the initial position. At the initial position, the extruder 140 is located above the deformable member 161 so that the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 fall within the range of the deformable member 161. In the example, the first motor and the second motor in the drive mechanism 150 drive the extruder 140 to move on the XY plane so that the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 both face the deformable member 161. As described above, the deformable member 161 can be installed at a specific position on the printing platform 160, so that the 3D printer can obtain the calibrated position of the deformable member 161 in advance. Then, the position of the extruder 140 on the XY plane is adjusted so that the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 both fall within the range of the deformable member 161, so as to facilitate the execution of the subsequent pressing step. In addition, the initial position may also have a certain initial height h to avoid interference between the extruder 140 and the deformable member 161 when the extruder 140 moves on the XY plane.

[0046] Since the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 have been aligned with the deformable member 161 in step 502 , the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120 can accurately contact and press into the deformable member 161 in subsequent steps.

[0047] Next, combine Figure 6How to improve the 3D printing process according to the relative position of the first fluid extrusion head 110 with respect to the second fluid extrusion head 120 obtained in the above method is described in detail. Figure 6 A flow chart of a 3D printing method 600 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. The method 600 includes:

[0048] Step 601 , executing the calibration method for the 3D printer 100 .

[0049] Step 602 : Printing is performed using the second fluid extrusion head 120 .

[0050] Step 603 , when applying the first fluid by the first fluid extrusion head 110 to the printed object that has been printed by the second fluid extrusion head 120 , the motion trajectory of the extruder 140 is corrected according to the relative position of the first fluid extrusion head 110 with respect to the second fluid extrusion head 120 .

[0051] In an embodiment, the first fluid may be a release material, and the second fluid may be a printing material. The printing material is the building material that ultimately forms the object to be printed (or the target object). The release material may be applied between the two parts formed by the printing material to facilitate the separation between the two parts. For example, when printing a suspended part in a 3D object, the processor 190 first controls the extruder 140 to print out a support part using the second fluid extrusion head 120, and then controls the extruder 140 to apply the release material on the upper surface of the support part using the first fluid extrusion head 110. Next, the 3D object itself is printed. After molding, the support part is removed from the entire printed object to obtain the object to be printed.

[0052] In step 601, you can use Figure 3 The calibration method shown obtains the relative position (ΔX, ΔY) of the first fluid extrusion head 110 relative to the second fluid extrusion head 120 .

[0053] In step 602, the support portion is printed using the second fluid extrusion head 120 according to the actual shape of the object to be printed.

[0054] The first fluid is applied to the printed object formed in step 602 using the first fluid extrusion head 110. It can be understood that due to the position difference between the first fluid extrusion head 110 and the second fluid extrusion head 120, the motion trajectory of the first fluid extrusion head 110 needs to be corrected to ensure that the first fluid is accurately applied to the printed support portion. In step 603, the motion trajectory of the first fluid extrusion head 110 can be corrected according to the relative position (ΔX, ΔY) obtained in step 601. In the example, the motion trajectory of the extruder 140 when the second fluid extrusion head 120 prints the support portion can be first obtained, and the above motion trajectory is translated in the opposite direction of the relative position (ΔX, ΔY) by the length of the absolute value of the relative position to obtain the motion trajectory of the first fluid extrusion head 110. Using the corrected motion trajectory to control the extruder 140 to drive the first fluid extrusion head 110 to print can ensure that the first fluid is accurately applied to the support portion.

[0055] The above-mentioned printing method 600 is described for the first fluid being a release material. However, it can be understood that in some embodiments, the first fluid and the second fluid can be printing materials of different materials, for example, printing materials of different colors. The first fluid and the second fluid can respectively form two parts of different colors of the final printed object. In such an embodiment, the first part formed by the second fluid can be printed first, and then the first fluid can be applied to the first part to form the second part. When applying the first fluid, the motion trajectory of the extruder 140 is corrected using the relative position (ΔX, ΔY).

[0056] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium is further provided, on which a computer program is stored, wherein when the computer program is executed by the processor 190, the steps of the method in any embodiment of the present disclosure are implemented.

[0057] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer program product is further provided, wherein when the computer program is executed by the processor 190, the steps of the method in any embodiment of the present disclosure are implemented.

[0058] It should be understood that the various forms of processes shown above can be used to reorder, add or delete steps. For example, the steps described in this disclosure can be performed in parallel, sequentially or in different orders, as long as the desired results of the technical solutions disclosed in this disclosure can be achieved, and this document does not limit this.

[0059] It should be understood that in this specification, the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "length", "width", "thickness", "up", "down", "front", "back", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inside", "outside", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", "axial", "radial", "circumferential" and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships or dimensions that are based on the orientations or positional relationships or dimensions shown in the accompanying drawings, and these terms are used only for the convenience of description, and do not indicate or imply that the referred device or element must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be understood as limiting the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

[0060] In addition, the terms "first", "second", "third", etc. are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Thus, a feature defined as "first", "second", "third" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the feature. In the description of the present disclosure, the meaning of "plurality" is two or more, unless otherwise clearly and specifically defined.

[0061] In the present disclosure, 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, an electrical connection, or a communication; 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 disclosure can be understood according to specific circumstances.

[0062] In the present disclosure, unless otherwise expressly 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.

[0063] This specification provides many different embodiments or examples that can be used to implement the present disclosure. It should be understood that these different embodiments or examples are purely exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present disclosure in any way. Those skilled in the art can conceive of various changes or replacements based on the disclosure of the present specification, which should all be included in the scope of protection of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present disclosure should be based on the scope of protection defined by the attached claims.

Claims

1. A calibration method for a 3D printer, wherein: The 3D printer comprises: an extruder, a first fluid extrusion head disposed on the extruder, a second fluid extrusion head disposed on the extruder, a profilometer, and a printing platform disposed below the extruder, and the method comprises: Moving the extruder toward the deformable member on the printing platform so that the first fluid extrusion head and the second fluid extrusion head contact and press into the deformable member to form a first depression and a second depression on the upper surface of the deformable member, respectively; Moving the extruder away from the printing platform so that the first fluid extrusion head and the second fluid extrusion head are separated from the deformable member; Allowing the profilometer to scan the upper surface of the deformable member to obtain scanned images of the first concavity and the second concavity; determining, from the scanned image, a first pixel point representing a feature point of the first concavity and a second pixel point representing a feature point of the second concavity; and The relative position of the first fluid extrusion head with respect to the second fluid extrusion head is determined according to the first pixel point and the second pixel point.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: Before moving the extruder toward the deformable member on the printing platform: The extruder is moved to above the deformable member so that the first fluid extrusion head and the second fluid extrusion head fall into the range of the deformable member.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: Before moving the extruder over the deformable member: It is determined that the deformable member is mounted on the printing platform.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The profilometer is disposed on the extruder, and wherein the method further comprises: Before causing the profilometer to scan the upper surface of the deformable member: The extruder is moved so that the profilometer is positioned over an edge of the deformable member.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: The deformable member includes an elastic deformable member and a plastic deformable member.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein: The elastically deformable member includes shape memory sponge.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: The feature point of the first concavity includes a center point of the first concavity, and the feature point of the second concavity includes a center point of the second concavity.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: The first fluid is a release material, and the second fluid is a printing material.

9. A 3D printing method, comprising: Performing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8; as well as When the first fluid extrusion head is used to apply the first fluid to the printed object that has been printed by the second fluid extrusion head, the motion trajectory of the extruder is corrected according to the relative position of the first fluid extrusion head with respect to the second fluid extrusion head.

10. A 3D printer, comprising: Extruder; A first fluid extrusion head, disposed on the extruder and configured to output a first fluid; A second fluid extrusion head, disposed on the extruder and configured to output a second fluid; The printing platform is set below the extruder; A driving mechanism, connected to the extruder and configured to drive the extruder to move; a profilometer configured to scan an upper surface of a deformable member mounted on the printing platform; and A processor configured to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 when executing instructions.

11. The 3D printer according to claim 10, wherein: The profilometer is arranged on the extruder.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, wherein: When the computer program is executed by a processor, the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 are implemented.

13. A computer program product comprising a computer program, wherein: When the computer program is executed by a processor, the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 are implemented.

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