A method of additive manufacture is disclosed. The method may include creating, by a 3D printer contained within an enclosure, a part having a weight greater than or equal to 2,000 kilograms. A gas management system may maintain gaseous oxygen within the enclosure atmospheric level. In some embodiments, a wheeled vehicle may transport the part from inside the enclosure, through an airlock, as the airlock operates to buffer between a gaseous environment within the enclosure and a gaseous environment outside the enclosure, and to a location exterior to both the enclosure and the airlock.

A method of additive manufacture suitable for large and high resolution structures is disclosed. The method may include sequentially advancing each portion of a continuous part in the longitudinal direction from a first zone to a second zone. In the first zone, selected granules of a granular material may be amalgamated. In the second zone, unamalgamated granules of the granular material may be removed. The method may further include advancing a first portion of the continuous part from the second zone to a third zone while (1) a last portion of the continuous part is formed within the first zone and (2) the first portion is maintained in the same position in the lateral and transverse directions that the first portion occupied within the first zone and the second zone.

Systems, methods and apparatuses are used for monitoring material processing using imaging signal density calculated for an imaging beam directed to a workpiece or processing region, for example, during inline coherent imaging (ICI). The imaging signal density may be used, for example, to monitor laser and e-beam welding processes such as full or partial penetration welding. In some examples, the imaging signal density is indicative of weld penetration as a result of reflections from a keyhole floor and/or from a subsurface structure beneath the keyhole. The monitoring may include, for example, automated pass/fail or quality assessment of the welding or material processing or parts produced thereby. The imaging signal density may also be used to control the welding or material processing, for example, using imaging signal density data as feedback. The imaging signal density may be used alone or together with other measurements or metrics, such as distance or depth measurements.

An apparatus and a method for powder bed fusion additive manufacturing involve a multiple-chamber design achieving a high efficiency and throughput. The multiple-chamber design features concurrent printing of one or more print jobs inside one or more build chambers, side removals of printed objects from build chambers allowing quick exchanges of powdered materials, and capabilities of elevated process temperature controls of build chambers and post processing heat treatments of printed objects. The multiple-chamber design also includes a height-adjustable optical assembly in combination with a fixed build platform method suitable for large and heavy printed objects.

A method of additive manufacture is disclosed. The method may include restricting, by an enclosure, an exchange of gaseous matter between an interior of the enclosure and an exterior of the enclosure. The method may further include running multiple machines within the enclosure. Each of the machines may execute its own process of additive manufacture. While the machines are running, a gas management system may maintain gaseous oxygen within the enclosure at or below a limiting oxygen concentration for the interior.

An example method for enabling inspection of a space includes: obtaining a space map representing the space to be inspected; rendering the space map to be presented at an inspection station for the inspection of the space; in response to navigation data, navigating within the space map for the inspection of the space; in response to a selection of an inspection capture point defined in the space map, presenting data representing the space captured at the inspection capture point; and generating inspection result data for the space, the inspection result data representing results of the inspection.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer program stored in a computer readable storage medium is disclosed. The computer program performs operations for processing input data when the computer program is executed by one or more processors of a computer device, the operations including: obtaining input data based on sensor data obtained during manufacturing of an article by using one or more manufacturing recipes in one or more manufacturing equipment; inputting the input data to a neural network model loaded to the computer device; generating an output by processing the input data by using the neural network model; and detecting an anomaly for the input data based on the output of the neural network model.

A method and an apparatus of a powder bed fusion additive manufacturing system that enables a quick change in the optical beam delivery size and intensity across locations of a print surface for different powdered materials while ensuring high availability of the system. A dynamic optical assembly containing a set of lens assemblies of different magnification ratios and a mechanical assembly may change the magnification ratios as needed. The dynamic optical assembly may include a transitional and rotational position control of the optics to minimize variations of the optical beam sizes across the print surface.

A quality review management system may be used to analyze the operation of manufacturing processes within a plant based on data collected by various data sources in the plant, such as batch executive applications, to automatically detect, store, and display exceptions within those processes for use by a quality review engineer to determine if the process operation meets certain quality standards. The quality review management system includes a configuration application that enables a user to create one or more exception rules, an exception engine that analyses process data using the rules to detect one or more exceptions within the process, and a review application that enables quality review personnel to review each determined exception for resolution purposes.

Systems, methods and apparatuses are used for monitoring material processing using imaging signal density calculated for an imaging beam directed to a workpiece or processing region, for example, during inline coherent imaging (ICI). The imaging signal density may be used, for example, to monitor laser and e-beam welding processes such as full or partial penetration welding. In some examples, the imaging signal density is indicative of weld penetration as a result of reflections from a keyhole floor and/or from a subsurface structure beneath the keyhole. The monitoring may include, for example, automated pass/fail or quality assessment of the welding or material processing or parts produced thereby. The imaging signal density may also be used to control the welding or material processing, for example, using imaging signal density data as feedback. The imaging signal density may be used alone or together with other measurements or metrics, such as distance or depth measurements.