Sigma Labshas announced the availability of itsprintrite3d第一次用于聚合物3D打印机的过程中监视系统。
Previously only compatible with metal machines, the firm’s quality assurance platform allows users to collect and analyze real-time data, as a means of identifying and averting manufacturing anomalies. Now the system is usable with polymer Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) systems as well, Sigma Labs’ CEO Mark Ruport says that it could be applied on a much grander scale than before.
Ruport说：“ Printrite3D现在提供了一种一致的方法来监视来自不同制造商的3D打印机的实时生产，从而支持不同的流程，以及现在的多种材料。”“这一突破将使大型的全球制造商能够管理内部制造的零件，合同制造商以及整个供应链的质量和一致性。”
质量保证
Effectively composed of hardware and software tracking modules, PrintRite3D represents Sigma Labs’ main product offering. Marketed as an In-Process Quality Assurance or ‘IPQA’ system, the platform combines real-time data collection with critical analysis to uncover part defects, before using machine learning to map how these might have developed.
在此过程中，该系统不仅允许用户避免打印失败并改善其零件吞吐量，还可以创建一个满足最终用户和标准组织需求的产品认证框架。printrite3d也是“独立于平台的”，因此，它可以用于任何第三方定向的能量沉积（DED）系统，并进行了改装以缩放现有的双重和四型激光器设置。
今年早些时候，Sigma Labs透露它已与DMG Mori利用其技术作为建造融化池监测系统对于公司的lasertecSLM machines, in addition toLockheed Martin， 其中有unveiled plans to deploy PrintRite3D在各种国防和民航计划中。
然而，尽管其平台在此类技术先进的行业中持续不断采用，但Sigma Labs的收入仍然很低compared to some of its 3D printing software peers, and it generated just $700,000 in Q3 2021, thus its decision to introduce PrintRite3D into polymer production could be seen as a move to broaden its market base.
Sigma Labs’ SLS opportunity?
According to Sigma Labs, SLS is “an established technology” with an increasing number of “production applications in regulated industries.” To help the technology meet this growing appetite for a workflow that can be scaled while meeting rising product quality demands, the firm has therefore updated its PrintRite3D system to make it SLS-compatible.
In effect, Sigma Labs has managed to achieve this by tweaking its platform’s software element, so that it’s capable of translating the signatures of SLS-radiated emissions in a way that enables the real-time monitoring of polymer prints, and provides OEMs with the ability to rapidly identify defects and deliver parts with greater quality assurance.
Citing the research of consultancy firmAMPOWERSigma Labs表示，工业聚合物市场的大约是其金属对应物的2.5倍，结果在美国出售的系统中有35％的系统将Polymer 3D打印视为利润丰厚的潜在部门，可以扩展到，并将其扩展到，并将其扩展到该领域。especially given that AMPOWER has found the tech’s adoption to be growing in healthcare, aviation and automotive.
Although Ruport says it’s currently “difficult to quantify the size of the market opportunity,” Sigma Labs has already gained two PrintRite3D orders from SLS customers, which he has branded “a fantastic first step into the polymer segment of the market, that demonstrates the need to ensure the quality and consistency of 3D printed parts.”
AI-powered quality control
近年来，AI和机器学习质量控制系统的兴起一直是3D打印行业的一个特征，因为它们开始为制造商提供扩展手段，同时避免了昂贵的产品缺陷。真实自去年以来Addiguruin-situ monitoring functionality。
At橡树岭国家实验室, researchers have also developed a novel AI-powered金属3D打印监视软件。Known as ‘Peregrine,’ the algorithm is programmed to track parts during production in a cost-efficient manner, and with further R&D, the team says it could even be used as a quality control method for self-correcting machines.
Elsewhere, in the field of material jetting, a team at劳伦斯·利弗莫尔国家实验室提出了一个独特的3D打印诊断工具。工程师的方法旨在作为高速摄影监视的较便宜的替代方法，使他们专注于一次优化一个系统参数，以使他们能够在生产过程中“保证零件质量”。
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特色图像显示了一组由Printrite3D平台质量启发的3D打印金属零件。通过Sigma Labs的照片。
