Methods and apparatus to identify additively manufactured parts are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a body, formed of layers layered substantially parallel to a base layer, composed of a first material having a first density, a first indicium embedded internally in the body as a void, and a second indicium on an external surface of the body, the second indicium aligning with the first indicium.

An exemplary method for determining a set of additive manufacturing parameters includes, a) determining a nominal parameter of at least one surface of a component, b) determining at least a second order variation in the nominal parameter, c) predicting an actual resultant dimension based at least in part on the nominal parameter and the second order variation, and d) adjusting at least one additive manufacturing process parameter in response to the predicted actual resultant dimension.

A method for 3D printing a patient-specific bone implant having variable density, in various aspects, comprises: (1) providing a thermoplastic polymer composition comprising: (A) between about 20% and about 50% bioactive agent by weight; (B) between about 0.5% and about 10% chemical foaming agent by weight; and (C) balance structural polymer by weight; (2) receiving, by computing hardware, a scan of a bone, the scan comprising at least a 3D image of the bone and radiodensity data for the bone; and (3) causing, by the computing hardware, a 3D printer to form the patient-specific bone implant from the 3D image using the thermoplastic polymer by modifying a 3D printing temperature of the 3D printer during printing of the patient-specific bone implant such that each portion of the patient-specific bone implant is produced at a temperature that corresponds to a desired density defined by the radiodensity data for the bone.

An exemplary method for determining a set of additive manufacturing parameters includes, a) determining a nominal parameter of at least one surface of a component, b) determining at least a second order variation in the nominal parameter, c) predicting an actual resultant dimension based at least in part on the nominal parameter and the second order variation, and d) adjusting at least one additive manufacturing process parameter in response to the predicted actual resultant dimension.

Methods and apparatus to identify additively manufactured parts are disclosed. An example method of manufacturing includes layering a first set of layers of a first material via an additive manufacturing technique, the first material having a first density and layering a second set of layers of the first material via the additive manufacturing technique, the second set of layers to form a void embedded internally in the part, the void forming an indicium.

Functionally graded materials can be prepared through additive manufacturing by determining the path that a head of 3D printer can follow while extruding a material mix of a required composition at required points of a layer of an FGM. Each point within the layer is evaluated regarding the directions within which the printing head can move into from that point while extruding the material mix of a required composition. Based on the evaluation, a multitude of polygons are defined within the polygonal shape that are guaranteed to be printable. A path can be designed for the printing head to follow to print all of the defined polygons, and consequently, to print the entire polygonal layer. Material extrusion commands are generated for the printing head.

A computer system for dynamically controlling printing parameters within a three-dimensional printer receives an indication for printing a target object by the three-dimensional printer. The computer system accesses a materials attribute dataset. The materials attribute dataset describes different material properties of a plurality of thermoset materials or mixtures thereof. Based upon the materials attribute dataset, for each of the plurality of extruders, the computer system selects one or more thermoset materials among the plurality of thermoset materials for each of the plurality of extruder to form an extrudate and determines an extrusion configuration for the selected one or more thermoset materials. The computer system then generates a command to cause the plurality of extruders of the thermoset three-dimensional printer to implement the extrusion configurations for the plurality of extruders while printing the target object.

A thermal displacement compensation device detects the temperature of a machine tool and the temperature of an environment in which the machine tool is placed, and estimates a temperature distribution in a machine component affected by the temperature of the environment from the relationship between the temperature of the machine tool and the temperature of the environment. Based on the estimated temperature distribution in the machine component, a position in the machine tool at which the time constant of the detected temperature matches the time constant of thermal displacement of the machine component affected by the temperature of the environment is found and set. Using temperature at the set position as a revised temperature of temperature detected by the machine temperature detection section, a thermal displacement amount of the machine component is calculated.

A method for 3D printing a patient-specific bone implant having variable density, in various aspects, comprises: (1) providing a thermoplastic polymer composition comprising: (A) between about 20% and about 50% bioactive agent by weight; (B) between about 0.5% and about 10% chemical foaming agent by weight; and (C) balance structural polymer by weight; (2) receiving, by computing hardware, a scan of a bone, the scan comprising at least a 3D image of the bone and radiodensity data for the bone; and (3) causing, by the computing hardware, a 3D printer to form the patient-specific bone implant from the 3D image using the thermoplastic polymer by modifying a 3D printing temperature of the 3D printer during printing of the patient-specific bone implant such that each portion of the patient-specific bone implant is produced at a temperature that corresponds to a desired density defined by the radiodensity data for the bone.

A system, method, and computer-readable medium having machine instructions provides for predicting geometric shape accuracy of 3D printed products. Such a prediction may involve developing a model of an object and determining ways in which an actually-manufactured 3D object corresponding to the model differs in real life. These differences correspond to shape deviations. Shape deviations may be process dependent and/or path dependent, and different layers of the object as well as the manufacturing process to make the different layers may introduce shape deviations in layers of the object. By developing a transfer functions of the manufacturing process and associated interlayer effects of the layers and then appropriately offsetting inputs to the manufacturing process, the shape deviations may be ameliorated.