3D Printing Drying Oven with Sealed Cavity and Hot Air Circulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
3D printing consumables prone to moisture absorption during use, leading to poor appearance and strength of printed products due to water absorption and boiling, which affects molecular weight and mechanical properties.
Innovation Solution
A drying oven for 3D printing materials featuring a base, upper cover, rotating shaft assembly, and drying assembly with a heating plate and fan, creating a sealed cavity for hot air to evaporate moisture from consumables, ensuring effective drying and preventing re-moisturizing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If consumables are placed in a closed space with a desiccant to lower ambient humidity, then moisture absorption degree is reduced, but water inside the material cannot be essentially removed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameters of the drying environment by using a heating plate to raise temperature and a fan to increase air circulation. This transforms the drying process from passive humidity control to active thermal drying, enabling effective removal of internal moisture while preventing re-absorption through the sealed cavity design.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces hot air as an intermediary medium to transfer thermal energy to the consumables. The fan circulates this hot air throughout the cavity, ensuring uniform heating and efficient moisture evaporation from the material interior, while the sealed cavity prevents the moisture-laden air from re-condensing on the material.
2Reliability
If consumables are heated in an oven to evaporate inside moisture, then drying effect is achieved, but drying rate is slow and treated consumables cannot be used directly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuous drying through the fan-driven circulation of hot air throughout the cavity. This ensures that fresh hot air continuously contacts the consumables, maintaining a consistent temperature gradient and moisture concentration differential, thereby achieving rapid and complete drying without stagnation periods.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses forced convection through the fan to accelerate the drying process. The mechanical movement of air replaces slow natural convection, creating high-velocity hot air flow that rapidly penetrates the consumable material, evaporates moisture quickly, and removes it from the cavity, significantly increasing drying rate and productivity.
3Ease of operation
If the reel is directly exposed to air, then accessibility is improved, but polymeric thermoplastic materials easily absorb moisture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a controlled atmosphere within the sealed cavity that is effectively inert to moisture absorption. By continuously circulating hot air and maintaining elevated temperature, the environment inside the cavity becomes unsuitable for moisture absorption, allowing the reel to be accessible while protected from harmful moisture uptake.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses the upper cover as a flexible sealing element that encloses the cavity. This cover creates a physical barrier that prevents ambient moisture from entering the cavity while allowing the reel to be loaded and accessed. The sealed environment maintained by this cover ensures that consumables remain dry even when the system is periodically opened for operation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The drying oven effectively removes water from consumables, enhancing the appearance and strength of 3D printed products by maintaining a dry environment and preventing re-moisturizing, thus improving the quality of the printed materials.
Implementation Method 1
The hot air flow heats the consumable in the cavity to evaporate the water inside
Implementation Method 2
hot air is formed under the action of the fan and the heating plate
Implementation Method 3
The hot air flow carries the water vapor to rise to be finally discharged from the air outlet
Data Source
AI summary
A drying oven for 3D printing materials includes a base, an upper cover, a rotating shaft assembly and a drying assembly. The drying assembly includes a heating plate and a fan. An air outlet end of the fan faces upward, and the heating plate is arranged above the air outlet end of the fan. An accommodating cavity is provided at a middle of the base, and an air inlet communicating with outside is provided at a bottom of the accommodating cavity. The fan and the heating plate are arranged in the accommodating cavity. The rotating shaft assembly is arranged on a top surface of the base. An air outlet is arranged at an upper end of the upper cover, and the upper cover is configured to cover the base.