SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENSURING CONSISTENCY IN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING USING THERMAL IMAGING
First Claim
1. A quality control system for assessing quality of a manufactured part in an additive manufacturing apparatus, comprising:
- a laser scanning system;
a thermal imaging device; and
a control computer,wherein the control computer is configured to;
initiate laser scanning of a building area in the additive manufacturing apparatus by the laser scanning system in order to manufacture the part;
cause the thermal imaging device to capture images of at least a portion of the building area during the laser scanning of the building area;
store the captured images as thermal data in a memory;
store build process data corresponding to fee laser scanning by the laser scanning system and a recoating of build material on the building area in the memory;
derive a thermal history for at least a portion of the part from the thermal data and the build process data, wherein the thermal history comprises temperature fluctuations for the at least the portion of the part during laser scanning and recoating; and
compare the derived thermal history with a stored thermal history associated with a master model of the part,wherein, a comparison of the derived thermal history after laser scanning and recoating with the stored thermal history indicates whether the part is conformal to the master model.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments set forth in this application relate to systems and methods by which parts produced by additive manufacturing can be reliably assessed for conformity to a known master model which has quality conforming to the desired specifications. These systems and methods involve recording a thermal history of the manufacturing process of each part. The recorded thermal history is then compared to the previously-recorded thermal history of the master model. Significant deviations in thermal history are indicative of irregularities in the manufacturing build, and the part quality may then be assessed in view of those irregularities.
23 Citations
16 Claims
-
1. A quality control system for assessing quality of a manufactured part in an additive manufacturing apparatus, comprising:
-
a laser scanning system; a thermal imaging device; and a control computer, wherein the control computer is configured to; initiate laser scanning of a building area in the additive manufacturing apparatus by the laser scanning system in order to manufacture the part; cause the thermal imaging device to capture images of at least a portion of the building area during the laser scanning of the building area; store the captured images as thermal data in a memory; store build process data corresponding to fee laser scanning by the laser scanning system and a recoating of build material on the building area in the memory; derive a thermal history for at least a portion of the part from the thermal data and the build process data, wherein the thermal history comprises temperature fluctuations for the at least the portion of the part during laser scanning and recoating; and compare the derived thermal history with a stored thermal history associated with a master model of the part, wherein, a comparison of the derived thermal history after laser scanning and recoating with the stored thermal history indicates whether the part is conformal to the master model. - View Dependent Claims (3)
-
-
2. (canceled)
-
4. The quality control system of claim 0, wherein to derive the thermal history for the at least the portion of the part comprises to:
-
select a point of the at least the portion of the part; and calculate a thermal history curve for the point of the at least the portion of the part based on the thermal data and the build process data.
-
-
5. The quality control system of claim 0, wherein to calculate the thermal history curve for the point comprises to extrapolate
temperature values indicative of a temperature at a location of the point throughout scanning of a layer of the manufactured part.
-
6. The quality control system of claim 0, wherein the comparison of the derived thermal history with the stored thermal history comprises a comparison of amounts of time the temperature at the location of the point exceeded a predefined reference temperature in each of the derived thermal history and the stored thermal history.
-
7. The quality control system of claim 0, wherein the predefined reference temperature is a melting point of a building material used to manufacture at least one of the manufactured part and the master model.
-
9. A method of assessing quality of a part manufactured in an additive manufacturing apparatus, the method comprising:
-
initiating laser scanning of a building area in the additive manufacturing apparatus by a laser scanning system in order to manufacture the part; causing a thermal imaging device to capture images of at least a portion of the building area during the laser scanning of the building area; storing the captured images as thermal data in a memory; storing build process data corresponding to the laser scanning by the laser scanning system and a recoating of build material on the building area in the memory; deriving a thermal history for at least a portion of the part from the thermal data and the build process data, wherein the thermal history comprises temperature fluctuations for the at least the portion of the pan during laser scanning and recoating; and comparing the derived thermal history with a stored thermal history associated with a master model of the part, wherein, a comparison of the derived thermal history after scanning and recoating with the stored thermal history indicates whether the part is conformal to the master model. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
10. (canceled)
Specification