Manufacturing equipment and manufacturing method for metal powder sintered component

Abstract

Manufacturing equipment for a metal powder sintered component includes: a powder layer forming portion that supplies metal powder to form a powder layer; a light beam irradiator that irradiates a give point on the powder layer with light beams to sinter the powder layer and thus form a sintered layer; and a cutter that cuts a shaped object in which sintered layers are integrally stacked. The light beam irradiator has a scan head X shaft that moves a scan head in X direction parallel to a surface irradiated with light beams and a scan head Y shaft that moves the scan head in Y direction, so that the scan head moves in a direction parallel to the irradiated surface to perform irradiation with light beams. Since the scan head moves parallel to the irradiated surface, the irradiated area can be increased. Since the irradiation height can be small, the accuracy of light beam scanning can be enhanced.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The present invention relates to manufacturing equipment and manufacturing methods for forming a metal powder sintered component by irradiating metal powder with light beams.BACKGROUND ART[0002]Equipment for manufacturing a metal powder sintered component by irradiating a powder layer, which is made of metal powder, with light beams to melt the powder layer for formation of a sintered layer and repeating the process of forming another powder layer on the sintered layer and irradiating it with light beams (hereinafter, referred to as manufacturing equipment) is known in the prior art. FIG. 22 shows a configuration of the manufacturing equipment. The manufacturing equipment 101 comprises a material tank 121 that supplies metal powder 111, a substrate 123 on which a powder layer 112 is placed, a formation table 124 that holds the substrate 123 and moves up and down, a wiper 126 that spreads the metal powder 111 contained in the material tank 121 onto the substrate ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013]According to the present invention, the irradiated area can be increased because the scan head moves parallel to the irradiated surface, and, by setting the irradiation height small, the accuracy of light beam scanning can be enhanced. Further, the scan head can move in the direction normal to the irradiated surface so as to change the irradiation height. Therefore, by changing the irradiation height of the scan head, the accuracy of light beam scanning can be adjusted.

[0050]In this second modified example, the formation may be made so that a boundary between formation areas in a sintered layer already formed under the irradiated surface does not vertically overlap a boundary between formation areas in the irradiated surface to be irradiated with light beams, like the first modified example. FIG. 21 shows the shape of the formation area “3” of the center portion in FIG. 20C that is formed so that boundaries between formation areas in the irradiated surface do not overlap vertically. The formation area “3” has a portion A entering into an adjacent formation area and a portion B into which an adjacent formation area enters. The positions of the boundaries between the formation area “3” and other formation areas are different between sintered layers, so that the boundaries in sintered layers vertically adjacent to each other do not overlap but the formation areas are incorporated into each other. This can increase the strength between the formation areas, thus making the shaped object firm.

Problems solved by technology

However, in the manufacturing equipment, if the rotation angles of the scan mirrors 134 are increased to enlarge the irradiated area, focusing and so on become difficult and thus the accuracy of light beam L scanning is reduced.

Further, since the irradiation height is fixed, the accuracy of light beam L scanning cannot be adjusted. FIG. 23 shows the relationship between the irradiation height and the irradiated area.

A deviation of the optical axis of the light beam L from the moving direction of the Y-reflection mirror 233 also causes a large error in irradiation position.

However, in the manufacturing equipment as disclosed in Patent Document 1, the irradiated area cannot be increased because the light beam oscillator and the scan head for directing light beams move only in the single direction.Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-122489

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