Research On Building 3D Clay Printing Technology Based On Robot Arm

As a kind of green material,clay has been more and more applied in the construction field due to its pollution-free and low cost characteristics,such as clay curtain wall,clay decorative board,clay decorative column and so on.However,the large plasticity and difficulty in forming of clay can not adapt to the traditional construction method,so a new construction method is needed to solve the problem.The 3D printing construction technology based on robot arm has the characteristics of low energy consumption,automation and intelligence,etc.Combining the ceramic materials with this construction method will become a new development trend,and it is of great significance to conduct in-depth research on it.This paper will take the curved terra-cotta shell under the 3D printing of robot arm as the research target and discuss the method of printing modeling.The main research contents of this paper include: the characteristics and basic principles of 3D printing technology and KUKA robotic arm technology are introduced;the study on the clay materials(using jian shui white pottery)was carried out to determine the optimal mixture ratio of clay and the relevant technological parameters.The development of 3D printing device based on the characteristics of robot arm and clay materiality mainly involves the design and production of tool head connected to the end of robot arm.through the developed printing device and related template making device,the 3D printing of a special-shaped shell is completed.Through the above studies,it was found that the optimal soil-water mix ratio of terra-cotta materials was 500 g: 60 g.The extruded exit is a round shape;The extrusion motor PWM is 42;The offset path distance of nozzle is 6 mm.Two kinds of clay printing devices based on robot arm have been developed.The first device is mainly composed of conversion device,driving device and shell,with the features of uninterrupted printing and continuous feeding.The second device is mainly composed of driving device,fixing device and shell,with the features of stable discharging and easy disassembly.When shell printing was implemented,template support was required,and EPS material was used to make the template.Firstly,EPS foam was cut into pieces with the help of hot-wire cutting tool based on robot arm,which was divided into 19 unit modules.Then,surface production of each unit module was completed through milling device based on robot arm.According to the predetermined path on the surface template,the robot arm is used to control the printing tool to print the clay.After printing,the 19 surface elements are dried and assembled,and the whole shell model is made.The manipulator path control in the above process is programmed using KUKA/prc.To sum up,through the research in this paper,a new set of 3D clay printing technology based on robot arm is proposed,including material matching,related tool production,robot arm path control,etc.This intelligent construction technology can be widely used in the manufacturing industry of architectural clay products.