Three dimensional printing of parts

• US 10,518,523 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2017
• Issued: 12/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Koreis, Rocke Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayles, Ashford S
• Application Number:
  US15/437,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20170157860A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,044 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/386 Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 30/00 Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 50/02 for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0621 Item configuration or customization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/04 Manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/30 Computing systems specially adapted for manufacturing

Abstract

A method and apparatus is presented. The apparatus comprises a parts library configured to store a plurality of part definition files; a database configured to store entries identifying a printing of parts using the plurality of part definition files; and a parts management system configured to request a payment in response to receiving an indication of a printing of a part using the part definition file.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a parts library configured to store a plurality of part definition files;

a database configured to store entries identifying a printing of parts using the plurality of part definition files; and

a parts management system configured to request a payment in response to receiving an indication of a printing of a part using a part definition file of the plurality of part definition files.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parts management system is further configured to:

receive the indication of the printing of the part using the part definition file, and store an entry identifying the printing of the part using the part definition file in the database.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parts management system is further configured to:

transmit the part definition file to a three dimensional printing system.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the parts management system is further configured to encrypt the part definition file to form an encrypted part definition file, and wherein in being configured to transmit the part definition file to the three dimensional printing system, the parts management system is configured to transmit the encrypted part definition file to the three dimensional printing system.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parts management system is further configured to verify that a three dimensional printing system has diagnostic information conforming to at least one of printer specifications and material specifications of the part definition file of the plurality of part definition files in the parts library.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parts library is a first parts library, and wherein the parts management system is further configured to update a second parts library in a three dimensional printing system using the plurality of part definition files in the first parts library.

7. A method comprising:

receiving an indication of a printing of a part using a part definition file; and

requesting payment in response to receiving the indication of the printing of the part using the part definition file.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a request for the part definition file in a parts library;

identifying the part definition file in a plurality of part definition files in the parts library; and

storing an entry identifying the printing of the part using the part definition file in a database.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

sending the part definition file in a plurality of part definition files to a three dimensional printing system.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

verifying that diagnostic information of a three dimensional printing system conforms to at least one of printer specifications and material specifications of the part definition file in a plurality of part definition files.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

sending a delete command to delete the part definition file to a three dimensional printing system in response to an event.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

encrypting the part definition file; and

sending an encrypted part definition file to a three dimensional printing system.

13. A system comprising:

a parts library configured to store a plurality of part definition files;

a database configured to store entries identifying a printing of parts using the plurality of part definition files;

a parts management system configured to receive a request for a part definition file in the parts library from a three dimensional printing system; and

the three dimensional printing system configured to print parts using the plurality of part definition files and, in response to an entry identifying a printing of a part using the part definition file, to request payment.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the parts library is located in the three dimensional printing system.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the database and the parts management system are located in an authorization system, and wherein the authorization system is configured to update the parts library by adding a number of part definition files to the parts library.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the database and the parts management system are located in an authorization system, and wherein the authorization system is configured to update specifications for a number of part definition files of the parts library to keep the parts library up to date.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the database and the parts management system are located in an authorization system.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the authorization system and the three dimensional printing system are connected by a data connection.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the three dimensional printing system comprises a number of three dimensional printers.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the three dimensional printing system further comprises a data processing system.