Additive manufacturing evaluation systems and methods
View Patent ↗A system is configured to determine the calibration accuracy of an additive manufacturing machine for each of fourteen (14) geometric dimensioning and tolerancing parameters. The system also allows for the comparison of the calibration accuracy of multiple additive manufacturing machines.
1. A system for determining the calibrated accuracy of a first additive manufacturing (AM) machine and a second AM machine, comprising:
a first build plate of the first AM machine including a plurality of coordinate positions;
a first print head of the AM machine configured to deposit material at any of the plurality of coordinate positions on the first build plate to form at least one of a first reference standard article at a first coordinate position of the first build plate, a second reference standard article at a second coordinate position of the first build plate, a third reference standard article at a third coordinate position of the first build plate, and a fourth reference standard article at a fourth coordinate position of the first build plate;
a second build plate of the second AM machine including the plurality of coordinate positions;
a second print head of the second AM machine configured to deposit material at any of the plurality of coordinate positions on the second build plate to form at least one of the first reference standard article at a first coordinate position of the second build plate, the second reference standard article at a second coordinate position of the second build plate, the third reference standard article at a third coordinate position of the second build plate, and the fourth reference standard article at a fourth coordinate position of the second build plate;
a computing device operably coupled to the first and second AM machines; and
an evaluation device operably coupled to the computing device, the evaluation device being configured to measure each surface of any of the first, second, third, and fourth reference standard articles formed by the first AM machine and any of the first, second, third, and fourth reference standard articles formed by the second AM machine, and the computing device being configured to provide an output about the calibrated accuracy of the first and second AM machines based on the measured surfaces of the first, second, third, and fourth reference standard articles formed by the first and second AM machines, and the computing device being configured to provide a comparison output comparing the output about the calibrated accuracy of the first AM machine and the output about the calibrated accuracy of the second AM machine, wherein the computing device uses the comparison output to determine differences between, the first, second, third and fourth reference standard articles formed by the first and second AM machines based the comparison output to calibrate at least the second AM machine to reduce differences between the first and second AM machine outputs.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of coordinate positions includes at least nine predetermined and distinct coordinate positions on the build plate.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the evaluation device is at least one of a laser scanning machine and a coordinate measuring machine.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first reference standard article includes a plurality of linear and cylindrical surfaces and the second reference standard article includes a plurality of linear surfaces.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the third reference standard article includes a plurality of linear and cylindrical surfaces and the fourth reference standard article includes a plurality of cylindrical surfaces.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the output about the calibrated accuracy of the first and second AM machines includes measurements for fourteen separate geometric dimensioning and tolerancing parameters for each of the first, second, third, and fourth reference standard articles formed by the first and second AM machines.