A weld production knowledge system for processing welding data collected from one of a plurality of welding systems, the weld production knowledge system comprising a communication interface communicatively coupled with a plurality of welding systems situated at one or more physical locations. The communication interface may be configured to receive, from one of said plurality of welding systems, welding data associated with a weld. The weld production knowledge system may comprise an analytics computing platform operatively coupled with the communication interface and a weld data store. The weld data store employs a dataset comprising (1) welding process data associated with said one or more physical locations, and/or (2) weld quality data associated with said one or more physical locations. The analytics computing platform may employ a weld production knowledge machine learning algorithm to analyze the welding data vis-à-vis the weld data store to identify a defect in said weld.

A method includes obtaining data associated with operation of an industrial process controller and identifying impacts of operational problems of the industrial process controller. The method also includes generating a graphical display for a user, where the graphical display presents one or more recommended actions to reduce or eliminate at least one of the impacts of at least one of the operational problems. The method further includes triggering at least one of the one or more recommended actions based on input from the user. The method could also include executing one or more analytic algorithms to process the obtained data and identify the operational problems of the industrial process controller. Each of the one or more analytic algorithms could be instantiated as a container, and multiple containers could be instantiated and executed as needed. Results of executing the one or more analytic algorithms could be transformed into a standard format.

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.

There are provided methods and systems for making or repairing a specified part. For example, there is provided a method for creating an optimized manufacturing process to make or repair the specified part. The method includes receiving data from a plurality of sources, the data including as-designed, as-manufactured, as-simulated, and as-tested data relative to one or more parts similar to the specified part. The method includes updating, in real time, a surrogate model corresponding with a physics-based model of the specified part, wherein the surrogate model forms a digital twin of the specified part. The method includes further updating the surrogate model with a model of manufactured variance associated with at least one of inspection and in-operation data of a similar part. The method includes executing, based on the digital twin, the optimized manufacturing process to either repair or make the specified part.

A method for facilitating part fabrication, such as by automated toolpath generation, can include one or more of: receiving a virtual part; modifying the virtual part; and/or determining toolpaths to fabricate the target part. The toolpaths preferably define an ordered series of additive and subtractive toolpaths, more preferably wherein the additive and subtractive toolpaths are interleaved, which can function to achieve high manufacturing efficiency and/or performance. The method can additionally or alternatively include: generating machine instructions based on the toolpaths; fabricating the target part based on the machine instructions; calibrating the fabrication system; and/or any other suitable elements.

A method and an apparatus for collecting powder samples in real-time in powder bed fusion additive manufacturing may involves an ingester system for in-process collection and characterizations of powder samples. The collection may be performed periodically and uses the results of characterizations for adjustments in the powder bed fusion process. The ingester system of the present disclosure is capable of packaging powder samples collected in real-time into storage containers serving a multitude purposes of audit, process adjustments or actions.

A tape sectioning system, comprising a tape web feed path for feeding a web of fiber reinforced tape, a quality inspection system arranged along the web feed path that inspects the quality of the web of tape, and a sectioner that sections off longitudinal tape sections from the web of tape, wherein the sectioner is arranged to vary the length of the tape sections that are sectioned off from the web of tape based on the outcome of the quality inspection.

In accordance with some embodiments, systems, methods, and media for controlling support structures and build orientation are provided. In some embodiments, a method for additive manufacturing a part using a three dimensional (3D) printing system, the 3D printing system including a print head and a build plate is provided, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of physical constraints associated with the part; optimizing a build orientation of the part to identify an optimized build orientation b* for the part with respect to a design domain defined by the physical constraints based on the plurality of physical constraints, and a plurality of design constraints using at least one variable associated with build orientation as an optimization variable, the plurality of design constraints comprising: an initial build orientation b.sup.0; and a critical surface slope angle and generating a part model based on the optimized build orientation b*.

A system and method for designing and manufacturing free-form objects made of composite material and optimised in their weight ratio and load capacity; a system for the design and manufacture of said objects, and the objects resulting from said method. Using three-dimensional (3D) design computer programs and computer calculation programs, the design of a composite material object is obtained, with a specific shape and orientation of its component fragments, optimised to be light and at the same time to meet a required specific mechanical and/or structural performance. Subsequently, a mould of at least two parts is obtained from this design and the parameters of said design are transformed into instructions so that one or more automated manufacturing machines deposit fragments of wood or another material onto the lower part of the mould in specific orientations, calculated to minimise the weight of the object and optimise its load capacity. Then, with the addition of one or more binders, the object is pressed between the parts of said mould. Finally, the new manufactured object is obtained by removing it from the mould.

A production system for producing products from raw materials by a production process with several steps has a number of production facilities that perform the steps and a control device. The control device determines a control target value by referring to information about group combinations specified in accordance with the relative merits of the manufacturing condition routes followed by respective lots during the production process. The relative merits are determined on the basis of quality items of the lots, classified for inter-step combinations of groups, which are classified on the basis of manufacturing conditions at the steps.