Sigma Labs Fraunhofer
John Rice, CEO of Sigma Labs, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Claus Emmelmann, Managing Director of Fraunhofer IAPT
Sigma Labs has announced a collaborative research and development agreement with Fraunhofer IAPT, which will focus on the industrialisation of additive manufacturing.
As part of the alliance, Fraunhofer IAPT, the organisation’s additive manufacturing division, will see its existing PrintRite3D system upgraded to the new version which was launched back at Formnext 2018, where the two parties secured the deal.
PrintRite3D is an integrated system that offers inspection, feedback, data collection and critical analysis capabilities. It comprises SensorPak multi-sensors and hardware with Inspect, Contour and Analytics software modules to better enable users to manage their additive manufacturing processes.
Introduced at Formnext last month, PrintRite3D 4.0 featured a number of hardware and software updates. These included sensors that are now coaxial to the laser optics in the hardware, as well as a new client-server architecture which enables multiple machines to be connect to the system as clients. While on the software side, there were new features allowing the measurement and reporting of melt pool relative temperature, and a physics-based methodology developed for characterising and analysing spectral data and optimising optics hardware and sensors to monitor spectral regions of interest and validate thermal signatures of interest.
Through the partnership with Fraunhofer IAPT, Sigma Labs is looking to enhance its flagship technology.
“The aim of this collaboration is to test and validate the use of the PrintRite3D system to identify and quantify machine and process inconsistencies as well as flag defect thermal signatures during the laser melting process, and correlate them to CT scan results,” John Rice, CEO, Sigma Labs, commented. “Ultimately, this will allow users to reduce scrap, increase productivity and reduce post-process inspection costs.”
“There is a clear demand for independent process monitoring systems for additive manufacturing within the industry,” added Prof. Dr.-ing Claus Emmelmann, Managing Director of Fraunhofer IAPT. “Therefore, we are looking forward to cooperating with Sigma Labs on the further development of their technology.”
