Method of manufacturing rapid prototyping workpiece by using laser transfer printing technology

Abstract

The invention discloses a method of manufacturing rapid prototyping workpiece by projecting a laser beam or other light onto the photo-conductive drum to attach powder materials to form a thin layer, and then coat the thin-layer material on a working platform. A point, line or plane light source of stronger intensity is used to go with the DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) or LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) to produce a physical change or a chemical change in the selected projecting region and combine the materials to become an acceptable property. The method comprises three stages of a process and repeats the process to complete a physical workpiece. The first stage refers to evenly spreading electric charges on a photo-conductive drum, and then projects a laser beam or a visible light onto the photo-conductive drum to electically conduct the electric charges and lower the electric potiential. By that time, the photo-conductive drum rotated in a high speed passes through a cartridge containing powder, the material will be attached onto the photo-conductive drum, since there is a potential difference between the photo-conductive drum and the material. Then, an appropriate method is used to flatly coat the material disposed on the photo-conductive drum onto the working platform, and thus a very thin even material layer is formed. The second stage refers to using a point, line or plane light source of stronger intensity for a selected region to go with a DMD or LCD to project or scan the selected region and produce a physical or chemical change, so that the materials are combined with each other to form an acceptable property. The third stage refers to removing the material remained on the photo-conductive drum and eliminating the static charges on the photo-conductive drum, so that the electric potential at the surface of the photo-conductive drum resumes its initial state to facilitate the next loop of actions. The whole manufacturing process uses this method to stack layer by layer to build a complete three-dimensional physical workpiece, so as to achieve the effect of saving work hours, materials and costs as well as enhancing the precision of the workpiece. The invention is definitely a very valuable manufacturing method.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.