Manufacturing methods and systems including digital twin managing process, lifecycle, and instance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12377610-B2
Application number	US-202318098942-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 19, 2023
Priority date	Jan 19, 2023
Publication date	Aug 5, 2025
Grant date	Aug 5, 2025

Abstract

This disclosure provides techniques for manufacturing parts using digital twin(s) to manage various aspects of the manufacturing system. An example method may include representing a manufacturing system using a digital twin. In some cases, representing the manufacturing system includes modeling, in the digital twin, digital representations that correspond to a number of physical components of the manufacturing system. The physical components include at least: a manufacturing material, a working environment for deposition of the manufacturing material (e.g., for additive manufacturing), a tool to manipulate the manufacturing material between at least two matter states in the working environment, and sensors measuring behaviors of the tool, the working environment, and the manufacturing material. The method may further include receiving a manufacturing production task. The task may include a digital model of a part to be manufactured and default parameters for the manufacturing material(s), the working environment, and the tool.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for manufacturing parts, the method comprising:
representing a manufacturing system using a digital twin, wherein representing the manufacturing system comprises modeling, in the digital twin, digital representations that respectively correspond to a plurality of physical components of the manufacturing system, the plurality of physical components including at least: a manufacturing material, a working environment for deposition of the manufacturing material, a tool to manipulate the manufacturing material between at least two matter states in the working environment, and a plurality of sensors respectively measuring behaviors of the tool, the working environment, and the manufacturing material, wherein at least one of the digital representations corresponding to the working environment models a building platform and ambient temperature control based on measurements by the plurality of sensors respectively measuring behaviors of the tool, the working environment, and the manufacturing material;
receiving a manufacturing production task;
performing, in the digital twin, a simulation of the manufacturing production task to identify one or more production parameters to apply in the working environment, the tool, or both; and
executing the manufacturing production task using the tool in the working environment based on the one or more production parameters identified in the digital twin, wherein the digital twin represents the manufacturing system in a progression state including local representations of coalescence properties, and a global heat transfer state that includes a global representation of the manufacturing production task, both the local representation and the global representation in communication with a global state of an as-printed part of the manufacturing production task, the as-printed part monitored by the plurality of sensors and simulated in the digital twin.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring the manufacturing production task using the plurality of sensors;
based on measurements by the plurality of sensors, updating, in the digital twin, the one or more production parameters in the simulation of the manufacturing production task; and
updating the executing the manufacturing production task based on the updated one or more production parameters identified in the digital twin.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein performing, in the digital twin, the simulation of the manufacturing production task comprises:
simulating a deposition of the manufacturing material in a liquid state under a first set of thermal conditions;
simulating a solidification of the manufacturing material under a second set of thermal conditions; and
comparing a simulated solidified portion of the manufacturing material to a corresponding characteristic in the manufacturing production task.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein performing, in the digital twin, the simulation of the manufacturing production task to identify the one or more production parameters comprises:
based on a difference between the simulated solidified portion of the manufacturing material and the corresponding characteristic in the manufacturing production task, updating the first set of thermal conditions, the second set of thermal conditions, or both;
updating, based on the updated first set of thermal conditions, the updated second set of thermal conditions, or both, the simulated solidified portion of the manufacturing material; and
upon determining that the difference between the updated simulated solidified portion of the manufacturing material and the corresponding characteristic in the manufacturing production task is smaller than a threshold value, identifying the one or more production parameters based on the updated first set of thermal conditions, the updated second set of thermal conditions, or both.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the corresponding characteristic comprises at least one of:
a corresponding geometry;
a corresponding porosity;
a corresponding surface roughness;
a corresponding fatigue property;
a corresponding tensile strength property; or
a corresponding stress level.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein executing the manufacturing production task using the tool in the working environment based on the one or more production parameters identified in the digital twin comprises:
monitoring, using the plurality of sensors, a local deposition of the manufacturing material by the tool in the working environment;
monitoring, using the plurality of sensors, a movement of the tool;
monitoring, using the plurality of sensors, an actually solidified portion of the manufacturing material deposited by the tool in the working environment; and
updating one or more progression parameters for the local deposition of the manufacturing material based on a difference between the actually solidified portion of the manufacturing material and a corresponding simulated solidified portion in the digital twin, wherein the plurality of sensors comprises a plurality of cameras providing computer visions for respectively monitoring the local deposition, the movement of the tool, and the actually solidified portion of the manufacturing material.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the plurality of sensors further comprises a pyrometer for measuring a global heat transfer in the working environment and providing measurements of the global heat transfer to a corresponding simulation of the local deposition in the digital twin for updating the one or more production parameters.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tool comprises at least one of:
a deposition unit comprising a heating element and a deposition nozzle to melt and deposit the manufacturing material in the working environment, wherein the manufacturing material comprises a molten form of metal, glass, or thermoplastic; or
a sintering unit comprising a layering mechanism and a laser to fuse a layer of the manufacturing material in the working environment, wherein the manufacturing material comprises a powder form of metal, glass, or thermoplastic.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein executing the manufacturing production task comprises at least one of:
performing additive manufacturing; or
performing subtractive manufacturing using a plurality of tools to remove material added during or after the additive manufacturing.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein representing the manufacturing system using the digital twin comprises:
retrieving, in a computational infrastructure, previous production parameters and system test results of the manufacturing system;
performing the simulation in the digital twin based on the previous production parameters and system test results; and
updating, based on the simulation, the one or more production parameters to apply in the working environment, the tool, or both, wherein the computational infrastructure comprises one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate changes of the plurality of physical components of the manufacturing system and corresponding digital representations in the digital twin.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing device for manufacturing parts, cause the processing device to:
represent a manufacturing system using a digital twin, wherein representing the manufacturing system comprises modeling, in the digital twin, digital representations that respectively correspond to a plurality of physical components of the manufacturing system, the plurality of physical components including at least: a manufacturing material, a working environmen

Assignees

• Palo Alto Res Ct Inc
• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Behandish Morad
• Patterson Matthew
• Taverniers Soren
• Timucin Dogan
• Somarakis Christoforos
• Korneev Svyatoslav

Classifications

• G05B19/41885

  characterised by modeling, simulation of the manufacturing system · CPC title

• B33Y50/02

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B29C64/153

  using layers of powder being selectively joined, e.g. by selective laser sintering or melting · CPC title

• B33Y30/00

  Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor · CPC title

• B22F10/28

  Powder bed fusion, e.g. selective laser melting [SLM] or electron beam melting [EBM] · CPC title