Method for Producing a Three-Dimensional Product

Abstract

A three-dimensional product is produced by providing a support medium in a container, introducing a production material into the support medium by means of the at least one insertion nozzle, and curing the production material. In the process, the support medium contains particles made of solid matter.

Claims

1. A method for producing a three-dimensional product, comprising: providing a support medium in a container; introducing a production material into the support medium by at least one insertion nozzle; and curing the production material to produce the three-dimensional product, wherein the support medium contains particles made of solid matter.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the particles are distributed in a spatially homogeneous manner in the support medium before the production material is introduced into the support medium.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the particles are distributed in a spatially inhomogeneous manner in the support medium according to a predetermined spatial distribution before the production material is introduced into the support medium.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein the particles are displaced with the support medium when the production material is introduced into the support medium so that the influence of the particles on a first side of the three dimensional product to be produced is smaller than on a second side of the three dimensional product that is opposite the first side.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the at least one insertion nozzle features a tool that is arranged such that at least one part of a surface of the support medium is smoothed by the tool.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the at least one insertion nozzle has a particle nozzle through which the particles made of solid matter are introduced into the support medium in front of the insertion nozzle in a direction of movement of the insertion nozzle (10).

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the particles made of solid matter have an average grain size of 10 μm to 10 mm.

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the average grain size is 0.1 mm to 5 mm.

9. The method according to claim 7 wherein the average grain size is 0.2 mm to 0.63 mm.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein at least 80% of the particles of solid matter are spattered or dendritic in form.

11. The method according to claim 10 wherein at least 95% of the particles of solid matter are spattered or dendritic in form.

12. The method according to claim 1 wherein the particles of solid matter are plastic particles and/or quartz sand particles.

13. The method according to claim 1 wherein the particles of solid matter have a density between 0.7 g/cm.sup.3 and 1.3 g/cm.sup.3 and/or the density of the particles and a viscosity of the support medium are such that the particles remain under the influence of gravity in-situ.

14. The method according to claim 1 wherein the particles of solid matter exhibit a wettability that prevents an adhesion and/or embedding in the production material.

15. The method according to claim 1 wherein the particles of solid material have an interfacial tension of less than 400 mN/m.

16. The method according to claim 1 wherein the particles of solid material have an interfacial tension of less than 100 mN/m.

17. The method according to claim 1 wherein the particles of solid matter in the support medium and during contact with the production material behave in a chemically inert manner.

18. The method according to claim 1 wherein the particles of solid matter comprise at least two different types of particles.

19. The method according to claim 18 wherein one type of particle of the at least two different types of particles is approximately spherical and wherein a second type of particle of the at least two different types of particles is approximately rod-shaped.

20. The method according to claim 1 wherein structures introduced into the three dimensional product by the particles of solid matter are smaller than a diameter of the production nozzle.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022] In the following, an example of an embodiment of the present invention will be explained in more detail by way of the attached drawings: They show

[0023] FIGS. 1 to 3—different stages of the method according to an an example of an embodiment of the present invention,

[0024] FIG. 4—a schematic section from FIG. 3,

[0025] FIG. 5—the schematic view of a produced product and

[0026] FIG. 6—a schematic sectional view through the product according to FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] FIG. 1 depicts a container 2 in which a support medium 4 has been provided. Particles 6 are introduced into the support medium 4 in the form of a granulate, which is schematically depicted by the arrow 8. This may occur in various ways. For example, the particles 6 can be distributed homogeneously, i.e. spatially evenly, in the support medium.

[0028] This situation is depicted in FIG. 2. In the container 2 there is now a mixture of the support medium 4 and the particles 6, which are homogeneously distributed in the support medium 4. For reasons of graphic representability and clarity, the individual particles 6 are shown at an equidistant distance from each other, i.e. on the basis of a grid. This is not the case in reality and is only intended to illustrate the presence of a homogeneous distribution, for example the number of particles 6 in a unit volume is constant. Alternatively or additionally, the entire mass of particles 6 in such a unit volume could also be constant. This is also referred to as homogeneous distribution.

[0029] FIG. 3 schematically shows how a production material 12 is introduced into the prepared container 2, which contains the support medium 4 and the particles 6, by means of an insertion nozzle 10. Due to the physical and chemical properties of the materials used as support medium 4 and production material 12, the production material 12 introduced by way of the insertion nozzle 10 remains in the respective introduction position. FIG. 3 shows that the production material 12 is introduced in individual layers 14 or plies and the product to be produced thus built up. The thickness of such a layer 14 preferably corresponds at least largely to the diameter of the insertion nozzle 10. A part of the support medium 4 is displaced by the introduced production material 12. The corresponding particles 6 located in the displaced part of the support medium 4 are also displaced at the same time. However, they remain in contact with the introduced production material 12.

[0030] If the flat product shown were to be produced horizontally in the container 2, for example, the insertion nozzle 10 would displace the support medium 4 and thus also the particles 6 in the area above the product when introducing the production material 12. Therefore, in this case, the upper side would receive less structure or texturing from the particles 6 than the opposite lower side. In the orientation of the product shown, the strength of the structuring effect is the same on both sides when the particles 6 are homogeneously distributed in the support medium. As a result, the structure can be influenced by the orientation of the product to be produced in the support medium 4 and the path covered by the insertion nozzle 10.

[0031] FIG. 4 depicts a schematic section from FIG. 3 so as to render the details more clearly visible. Production material 12 is introduced through the insertion nozzle 10 into the support medium 4, not shown in FIG. 4, where the particles 6 are situated. In FIG. 4, the upper-most layers 14 are just halfway finished. The insertion nozzle 10 will continue to move to the left as it progresses, completing the layer 14. In the same way that the support medium 4 remains in contact with the production material 12 until the production material 12 cures, some of the particles 6 are also in contact with the production material 12. However, since these have a considerably higher strength than the support medium 4 and cannot change their geometric shape, they leave a structure in the surface of the product to be produced.

[0032] This is shown in FIG. 5. It depicts a product 16 that has been formed from the cured production material 12. At the points where the production material 12 was in contact with one of the particles 6 as it was cured, there is now a dent 18 whose size and shape depends on the size and shape of the respective particle 6. The number of dents and their distribution depends on the density and quantity of the particles 6 that were distributed in the support medium 4. A sectional plane is schematically represented by a frame 20.

[0033] FIG. 6 depicts a section through the product 16 along this sectional plane. On the outside the various dents 18 caused by the particles 6 can be seen. Together, these dents 18 are referred to as structure or also microstructure. Through the careful selection of the path along which the insertion nozzle 10 is moved through the support medium 4 in order to introduce the production material 12 into the support medium 4, the structure, i.e. in particular the number and/or depth of the dents 18 on a first side, for example left, of the product 16 can be designed to be more pronounced than on the opposite second side. This enables a product 16 to be produced that, for example, only features such a structure on one side, while it is not present or only very weakly present on the opposite side. This can be achieved even though the particles 6 were homogeneously distributed in the support medium 4.

REFERENCE LIST

[0034] 2 container [0035] 4 support medium [0036] 6 particle [0037] 8 arrow [0038] 10 insertion nozzle [0039] 12 production material [0040] 14 layer [0041] 16 product [0042] 18 dent [0043] 20 frame