A window into additive production

Sigma Labs, Inc., a leading developer of quality assurance software for the commercial 3D printing industry, launched Printrite3D Production Series that introduces the ‘Production Dashboard’ and provides production managers with critical metrics, insight and actionable information during the production process. This launch comes at a time when many predict that the use of 3D printing of metal parts will increase dramatically in response to COVID-19 and the effect of the pandemic on U.S. manufacturing, especially with manufacturers that rely on complex and lengthy supply chains.

PrintRite3D Production Series enhances the speed and agility of additive manufacturing by truncating the design and development process and accelerating the 3D manufacturing machine qualification and has the added advantage to remotely monitor production in real-time from anywhere in the world.

Sigma’s technology is machine agnostic and runs on most major brands of 3D metal printers. This allows for standard quality assurance processes, even throughout a supply chain using 3D printers from different manufacturers. PrintRite3D Production Series, which will be available in April, introduces an intuitive dashboard that provides in-process quality metrics and actionable information to production managers during the production process including:

• Automated In-process Quality Metric (IPQM) based alerts, which allow production managers to use custom metric thresholding for part and process quality decision making. In real time, the process engineer can know that the process was in control and the production manager can know the part yield predictive performance, ensuring maximum efficiency of the manufacturing process.

• IPQM trained with machine learning algorithms using micro CT-based on standard additive defects, can identify and classify known porosity modes such as, Lack of Fusion, Key Hole, Spherical Porosity and Foreign Inclusions. The process engineer can begin to qualify and certify the IPQM as a proxy for micro CT, thereby reducing the post process measurement burden, and in real time monitor the predictive defect modes.

• High resolution IPQM “medical grade” forensic analysis in 3D for process engineering part anomaly investigation, provides a level of granularity during the build process that until now was unattainable. Using the Production Dashboard, the process engineer can begin continuous process improvement by virtue of forming a deeper understanding of the nature of 3D anomalous IPQM signature morphologies.

• PrintRite3D Production Series can be used remotely by production managers and operators to monitor, analyze and intervene in real time production as required from any location around the globe.

Sigma Labs
www.sigmalabsinc.com