Visualization of additive manufacturing process data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10048661-B2
Application number	US-201414573869-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2014
Priority date	Dec 17, 2014
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

Systems, apparatus and methods provide a visual representation to users of data collected from a three dimensional manufacturing process, such as an additive manufacturing (AM) process. In an embodiment, a user device receives process data associated with a three dimensional manufacturing process, transforms the process data into visualization data compatible with a computer-aided design specification, receives a Boolean query, and then renders, in response to the Boolean query, a visual depiction on a display screen of at least one aspect of the three dimensional manufacturing process and/or the three dimensional manufacturing apparatus and/or a object being manufactured.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A visualization method comprising:
receiving, by a user device, process data associated with a three dimensional manufacturing process of an object, wherein the process data is obtained from at least one sensor monitoring features related to at least one of the object, the three dimensional manufacturing process, and the three dimensional manufacturing apparatus;
transforming, by the user device, the process data into visualization data compatible with a computer-aided design specification;
receiving, by the user device, a Boolean query associated with at least one aspect of at least one of the three dimensional manufacturing process, a portion of the object, and a three dimensional manufacturing apparatus; and
rendering, by the user device in response to the Boolean query, a visual depiction of the at least one aspect on a display screen, further comprising:
formulating the Boolean query, with the user device, by selecting one or more sensor values and one or more acceptable ranges.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received process data comprises data indicative of the three dimensional manufacturing apparatus.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the three dimensional manufacturing apparatus data comprises at least one of laser power, laser drive current, laser scan speed, x-y-z coordinates, laser scatter off a galvanometer window, extrusion temperature, vibration data, re-coater vibration, machining tool vibration, feed speed, wire delivery speed, powder delivery speed, build chamber temperature, gas flow, oxygen concentration, spindle speed, accelerometer data, and curing lamp intensity.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received process data comprises data indicative of macroscopic object data.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the macroscopic object data comprises at least one of camera images of the object being built, thermal images of the object, images of the powder bed layer, images of the post-weld layer, and spatter quantification data.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received process data comprises data indicative of microscopic object data.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the microscopic object data comprises at least one of bead quality, melt pool size, melt pool shape, melt pool temperature, melt pool image, melt pool emission intensity, thermal melt pool data, and thermal melt pool images.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the process data is observation data obtained from an operator of the three dimensional manufacturing apparatus.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the three dimensional manufacturing process comprises one of a machining process, a powder fed additive process, or a powder bed additive process.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user device comprises one of a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a thin client network computer, a portable digital assistant (PDA), a messaging device, a cellular telephone, a Smartphone, and a portable media or entertainment device.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the three dimensional manufacturing process comprises an additive manufacturing (AM) process.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein transforming comprises normalizing three-dimensional coordinate data for compatibility with a computer-aided design (CAD) software program.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the user device, image manipulation instructions; and
filtering, by the user device, the visual depiction of a portion of the object being manufactured in accordance with the image manipulation instructions.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the image manipulation instructions include at least one of rotating or slicing the visual depiction of the portion of the object being manufactured.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying, on the user device, results of the Boolean query according to conditions of the Boolean query being met.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the results of the Boolean query according to the conditions of the Boolean query being met are color coded.

17. A visualization method, comprising:
receiving, by a user device, process data associated with a three dimensional manufacturing process of an object;
transforming, by the user device, the process data into visualization data compatible with a computer-aided design specification
receiving, by the user device, a Boolean query associated with at least one aspect of at least one of the three dimensional manufacturing process, a portion of the object, and a three dimensional manufacturing apparatus; and
rendering, by the user device in response to the Boolean query, a visual depiction of the at least one aspect on a display screen, further comprising:
formulating the Boolean query, with the user device, by requesting the visual depiction as a geometry plot that renders points in the geometry plot only if values of the at least one aspect is below a first value and/or above a second value.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Arthur Richard Brownell
• Cheverton Mark Allen

Classifications

• G05B2219/49018

  Laser sintering of powder in layers, selective laser sintering SLS · CPC title

• G05B19/401

  characterised by control arrangements for measuring, e.g. calibration and initialisation, measuring workpiece for machining purposes (G05B19/19 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B33Y50/02

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B29C67/0088

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• Y02P90/265

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic