PST: Process control tool for additive manufacturing
Project description
As part of this ZIM cooperation project, a process control tool for additive manufacturing (PST for short) is being developed to enable consistent quality in the additive manufacturing of PLA-based components by digitizing the printing process and simulating it in advance for each individual printing process. This should enable the 3D printer to react to changing parameters and conditions, such as the increasing temperature of the printing bed, and adapt the filament application accordingly. By using an industrial camera, the filament application is also to be monitored and printing is to be aborted in the event of errors. The intended process control of the printer is therefore mainly digital. On the one hand, this approach should enable companies to achieve consistent production quality and, on the other hand, significantly reduce costs, as misprints can be detected by the camera and aborted at an early stage, especially in the case of complex geometries.
The necessary developments for this are spread across the areas of material characterization, numerics, digital twins, process technology and artificial intelligence, all of which are linked via a process database. The process database is therefore the linchpin of the entire PST.
The development area of HKA is the characterization and modelling of the melting and solidification processes - the so-called layer interaction. In addition, HKA is developing a method for predicting the macroscopic properties of the workpiece.