Recent Patents on Mechanical Structure of 3D Printer

Background: 3D printing technology is widely applied in transportation, industrial equipment, medical, aerospace, and civil industry due to its less use of material, no requirement of manufacturing model, and machinability of complex parts. The mechanical structure of a 3D printer mainly includes a 3D printer head structure and working platform. It plays a major role in the machining efficiency and processing accuracy of the 3D printer. Thus, increasing attention has been paid to the current trends in the mechanical structure of 3D printers. Objective: To meet the increasing requirements of 3D printing processing efficiency and precision, the mechanical structure of 3D printers, such as 3D print head structure and working platform, needs to be carefully studied, and a feasible mechanical structure of 3D printers should be proposed. Methods: This paper studies various representative patents related to the mechanical structure of 3D printers, analyzes the mechanical structure of 3D printers, and examines the perfect mechanical structure of 3D printers. Results: By summarizing several patents on the mechanical structure of 3D printers, the main current existing problems, such as platform jitter and machining error, are summarized and analyzed, and a new mechanical structure of 3D printers is proposed. Moreover, the development tendency of the mechanical structure of 3D printers in the future is discussed. Conclusion: The optimization of the mechanical structure of the 3D printer is conducive to increasing the machining efficiency and processing accuracy in the 3D printing process. More relevant patents on the working platform and 3D printer heads will be granted in the future.