Sigma Labs is known for its PrintRite3D quality assurance system for additive manufacturing, which combines PrintRite3D SENSORPAK multi-sensors and hardware with PrintRite3D INSPECT, CONTOUR and ANALYTICS software modules.
- SENSORPAK features multi-sensors and affiliated hardware to collect real time data on additive manufacturing processes
- INSPECT is software for in-process inspection of metallurgical properties
- CONTOUR is software for real time monitoring or in-process part geometry
- ANALYTICS is software for manufacturing intelligence – trend, correlation, exploration
Both CONTOUR and ANALYTICS are still under development.
In a couple of weeks, at formnext 2018, Sigma Labs will be launching the latest edition of the product suite: PrintRite 4.0.
“Our latest PrintRite3D® suite of products presents a significant value proposition to OEMs and manufacturers, as it is designed to increase production yield of 3D metal manufactured parts and to shorten time to market, removing a major hurdle that has been affecting manufacturers,” said John Rice, CEO of Sigma Labs. “We believe our IPQA® technology is transformational and our team looks forward to demonstrating at Formnext how Sigma Labs is bringing the industry from prototype to industrialized manufacturing.”
IPQA technology is Sigma Labs’ system for optimizing melt pool conditions during the additive manufacturing process, using sensor data and establishing in-process quality metrics. It also provides part quality reporting using statistical analysis of process data to validate repeatability.
The upgrades to PrintRite3D come mainly in the form of upgrades to SENSORPAK and INSPECT. SENSORPAK 4.0 hardware eliminates sensors within the build chamber; all sensors are now coaxial to the laser optics, eliminating concerns over gas flow disruptions or space limitations within the build chamber. A new client-server architecture allows multiple machines to be connected to the system as clients, so that one server can run multiple machines. The data acquisition and data processing hardware has been upgraded to provide faster processing of data, and results are now displayed in real time during the build. Finally, the new hardware has a smaller footprint with no floor space requirement.
The new INSPECT 4.0 software has melt pool spectral data evaluation capability. Sigma Labs developed a physics-based methodology for characterizing and analyzing spectral data and optimizing optics hardware and sensors to monitor spectral regions of interest and validate thermal
signatures of interest. New software features also allow the measurement and reporting of melt pool relative temperature as well as Thermal Energy Planck (TEP) in-process quality metric used for thermal signature identification. Customers looking to identify thermal signatures of process anomalies and their coordinate locations will also benefit from the software’s updates.
Sigma Labs will be officially unveiling the new upgrades to PrintRite3D at formnext, which is taking place in Frankfurt, Germany from November 13th to November 16th. If you will be attending, you can stop by and visit Sigma Labs at Booth 3.0-H77.
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