Visual presentation for monitoring layer-wise curing quality in DLP 3D printing
ISSN: 1355-2546
Article publication date: 23 August 2021
Issue publication date: 18 November 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address the problem of uncertain product quality in digital light processing (DLP) three-dimensional (3D) printing, a scheme is proposed to qualitatively estimate whether a layer is printed with the qualified quality or not cured .
Design/methodology/approach
A thermochromic pigment whose color fades at 45°C is prepared as the indicator and it is mixed with the resin. A visual surveillance framework is proposed to monitor the visual variation in a period of the entire curing process. The exposure region is divided into 30 × 30 sub-regions; gray-level variation curves (curing curves) in all sub-regions are classified as normal or abnormal and a corresponding printing control strategy is designed to improve the percentage of qualified printed objects.
Findings
The temperature variation caused by the releasing reaction heat on the exposure surface is consistent in different regions under the homogenized light intensity. The temperature in depth begins to rise at different times. The temperature in the regions near the light source rises earlier, and that far from the light source rises later. Thus, the color of resin mixed with the thermochromic pigment fades gradually over a period of the entire solidification process. The color variation in the regions with defects of bubbles, insufficient material filling, etc., is much different from that in the normal curing regions.
Originality/value
A temperature-sensitive organic chromatic chemical pigment is prepared to present the visual variation over a period of the entire curing process. A novel 3D printing scheme with visual surveillance is proposed to monitor the layer-wise curing quality and to timely stop the possible unqualified printing resulted from bubbles, insufficient material filling, etc.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work is partially supported by the Key projects of science and technology plan of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education (KZ202110005007) and the Special plan of the National key R&D Program of international cooperation in science and technology innovation between governments ( 2018YFE0197100). Authors thank Mr Jiuyun Zhu with Beijing Insititute of Technology for preparing the thermal pigment.
Citation
Wu, L., Liu, Z., Guan, Y., Cui, K., Jian, M., Qin, Y., Li, Y., Yang, F. and Yang, T. (2021), "Visual presentation for monitoring layer-wise curing quality in DLP 3D printing", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 27 No. 10, pp. 1776-1790. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-03-2020-0056
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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