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Fraunhofer IPA: Reliable quality of 3D-printed components

September 4, 2024. 3D printing has great potential in manufacturing. It can be used to produce bionic lightweight components for aviation that can significantly reduce CO2 emissions. In the “Enabl3D” project, researchers are now developing an adequate quality assurance system.

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Robot-assisted measurement of 3D construction jobs using a measuring head from Imprintec GmbH. Photo: Fraunhofer IPA/Photo: Rainer Bez

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Aviation components from the 3D printer? Inline quality assurance is essential for these and other highly safety-critical parts. After all, the components have to be closely inspected before they are installed in passenger and cargo aircraft. The problem is that printed parts of the same design may differ slightly, meaning that the results of the material sample tests cannot be transferred one hundred percent to other components. Conventional destructive tests are not an alternative due to the high resource and energy requirements. The same applies to expensive technologies such as X-rays.

Robot-assisted hardness measurement with a 6-axis industrial robot

In future, every single component from the 3D printer could be tested non-destructively: With a testing method that was tested by Imprintec GmbH in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Additive Production Technologies IAPT and VisiConsult GmbH in the “Enabl3D” project. The quality properties are recorded via indentation testing, process monitoring and micro-computed tomography – on the finished component, quickly and reliably. In the sub-project “Integration of hardness measurement technology”, the team also brought the experts from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA on board. The aim was to combine the measuring head with a 6-axis industrial robot for an automated application. “Together with Imprintec GmbH, we carried out initial tests and feasibility studies in order to be able to integrate the measuring head into series production via the robot,” explains Lukas Werdin, scientist at Fraunhofer IPA. The challenge: while the measuring system is fixed to a table in the test laboratory, inaccuracies can occur due to the robot arm. The researchers therefore investigated whether all the desired measuring points on the component could be reached with the robot arm and with what accuracy the measurements could be repeated. “Our main focus was on positionability, positioning accuracy and the quality of the measurements,” explains Werdin.

The results were consistently positive. All the desired measuring points could be controlled and examined with the robot, and the quality of the measurements was also very good. “The deviation was in the single-digit percentage range – a very good result for an initial application in conjunction with a robot,” says Werdin.

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Further links

👉 www.ipa.fraunhofer.de 
👉 Integration of hardness measurement technology – Enabl3D (YouTube)

Photo: Fraunhofer IPA/Photo: Rainer Bez

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